Here's what could stop the FTSE 100's advance

FTSE for Friday (FTSE:UKX)

Our "strong and stable" leader's repeated attempts to weaken sterling appear to be finally bearing fruit, though it did take repeated speeches to undermine the Bank of England's outlook.

Thankfully, she has yet to turn her magic against the FTSE 100 and it remains looking like it wishes to go up. For a while, sterling was looking stronger than the euro (GBPEUR) but we now suspect it intends bounce around €1.1111 anytime soon.

As for the FTSE, the index has experienced a pretty useful start to the month, permitting untold optimism for the future. The small spanner in the works appears to be the immediate blue downtrend since June and, visually, the FTSE closed against the blue line.

Thankfully, the visual impression is a few points away from being correct. The downtrend is at 7,512 points, the market closed the session at the day high of 7,508 points. Perhaps there is sufficient wiggle room not to shout about an immediate recoil being due.

Near term, above 7,512 points enters a cycle toward 7,561 points initially, perhaps even 7,585 if bettered. Unfortunately, for those fond of drawing lines, the closest stop appears to be 7,350 points, which is a bit rotten.

If we threw some guesswork at the problem, perhaps 7,455 will suffice as a stop level.

What happens if 7,350 breaks?

In such an instance, we are looking for near-term weakness toward 7,289 initially. Secondary comes along at 7,215 points. If triggered, the tightest stop looks like 7,380 points.

Alistair Strang has led high-profile and "top secret" software projects since the late 1970s and won the original John Logie Baird Award for inventors and innovators. After the financial crash, he wanted to know "how it worked" with a view to mimicking existing trading formulas and predicting what was coming next. His results speak for themselves as he continually refines the methodology.

Alistair Strang is a freelance contributor and not a direct employee of Interactive Investor. All correspondence is with Alistair Strang, who for these purposes is deemed a third-party supplier. Buying, selling and investing in shares is not without risk. Market and company movement will affect your performance and you may get back less than you invest. Neither Alistair Strang, Shareprice, or Interactive Investor will be responsible for any losses that may be incurred as a result of following a trading idea. 

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