#Brent #Germany Without any surprise, the FTSE managed waste everyone’s time on Friday, frittering around while rain fell here in Argyll in record quantities, while other world markets were experiencing a 2% day of gains.. Again. Cutting a long story short, instead of vanishing down a YouTube rabbithole on Friday afternoon, looking at properties in Norfolk consumed a large part of the day. And a big question arose! How the hell can people in England afford to buy houses? The entire property game still looks like a massive pyramid scheme, one which is surely going to bite back harder than the mortgage related banking shambles of 2009. An industry which can only survive if prices continuing going up isn’t an industry but instead, a collective delusion. My wife acidly points out I shall forget my negative weather comments as we’re about to experience Argyll’s two “safe” summer months, May and June.
The FTSE’s moribund behaviour is something we hope shall prove to be a fairly short term affliction, hopefully cured once navigation resumes in the Straits of Hormuz. We glanced at shipping movements tonight, noting a Saudi cruise ship was cheerfully carrying its passengers through the troubled zone, presumably without hindrance on what appears to be a regular three day “jolly” from Jeddah. Equally, plenty of aircraft were flying over Israel though airspace above Iran remained as absent as the UK Prime Ministers apparent ethical standards.
However, there remains optimism for some decent FTSE acceleration, such an event obviously holding a high probability of a further kick up Barclays memory from 2009, To be fair, the share price is already cruising in an area where our rule of thumb deems a distant 737p as exerting a future influence, though goodness knows how long it would take. Unfortunately, the share price only needs close below 432p for us to glare at the tea leaves and revisit the numbers for the future.
At present, above 456p is supposed to trigger gains in the direction of an initial 468p with our secondary, if bettered, at 506p and the possibility of the share price entering the land of Big Picture miracles. While achieving 506p shall challenge the downtrend since 2007 and the years of “political integrity” from PM’s Blair & Brown (aka sarcasm), this is liable to become a truly important era for the retail bank share price as while it’s possible to highlight various price levels as potential problems on the way up, the strength of the share price when this Blue downtrend commenced is liable to make a future 737 a very viable ambition. Hopefully a future mortgage crisis fails to appear at such a level as it would provide Barclays share price with the most poisonous “double top” since “Good Old Yellow Pages” share price pretended a fake recovery…
Should things intend go wrong for Barclays – or at least enact a slow down – below 432p would certainly present a problem, opening up the concept of reversal to an initial 408 with our secondary, if broken, at 353p and the potential for a bounce. At present, we’re more focussed on happier days ahead.
FUTURES
FUTURES
| Time Issued | Market | Price At Issue | Short Entry | Fast Exit | Slow Exit | Stop | Long Entry | Fast Exit | Slow Exit | Stop |
| 9:26:25PM | BRENT | 8706.4 | 8475 | 8098.5 | 7454 | 8780 | 9140 | 9577 | 10033 | 9027 |
| 9:30:32PM | GOLD | 4846.28 | ||||||||
| 11:20:42PM | FTSE | 10693.4 | ||||||||
| 10:24:20PM | STOX50 | 6038.5 | ||||||||
| 11:06:58PM | GERMANY | 24370 | 24252 | 24005 | 23741 | 24390 | 24648 | 24721 | 24910 | 24575 |
| 11:13:15PM | US500 | 7073.7 | ||||||||
| 11:16:01PM | DOW | 49003.5 | ||||||||
| 11:18:09PM | NASDAQ | 26464 | ||||||||
| 10:56:25PM | JAPAN | 58899 |
17/04/2026 FTSE Closed at 10667 points. Change of 0.74%. Total value traded through LSE was: £ 9,370,886,318 a change of 52.53%
16/04/2026 FTSE Closed at 10589 points. Change of 0.28%. Total value traded through LSE was: £ 6,143,664,232 a change of -12.74%
15/04/2026 FTSE Closed at 10559 points. Change of -0.47%. Total value traded through LSE was: £ 7,040,462,072 a change of 0%
14/04/2026 FTSE Closed at 10609 points. Change of 0.26%. Total value traded through LSE was: £ 0 a change of -100%
13/04/2026 FTSE Closed at 10582 points. Change of -0.17%. Total value traded through LSE was: £ 6,248,149,769 a change of -33.03%
10/04/2026 FTSE Closed at 10600 points. Change of -0.03%. Total value traded through LSE was: £ 9,329,891,860 a change of 42.46%
9/04/2026 FTSE Closed at 10603 points. Change of -0.05%. Total value traded through LSE was: £ 6,549,262,704 a change of -39.09% 
SUCCESS above means both FAST & SLOW targets were met. ‘CESS means just the FAST target met and probably the next time it is exceeded, movement to the SLOW target shall commence.
Our commentary is in two sections. Immediately below are today’s updated comments. If our commentary remains valid, the share can be found in the bottom section which has a RED heading. Hopefully, this will mean you no longer need to flip back through previous reports. HYPERLINKS DISABLED IN THIS VERSION
Please remember, all prices are mid-price (halfway between the Buy and Sell). When we refer to a price CLOSING above a specific level, we are viewing the point where we can regard a trend as changing. Otherwise, we are simply speculating on near term trading targets. Our website is www.trendsandtargets.com.
UPDATE. We often give an initial and a secondary price. If the initial is exceeded, we still expect it to fall back but the next time the initial is bettered, the price should continue to the secondary. The converse it true with price drops.
We can be contacted at info@trendsandtargets.com. Spam filters set to maximum so only legit emails get through…
Section One – Outlook Updated Today. Click here for Section Two – Outlook Remains Valid shares
Click Epic to jump to share: LSE:BBY BALFOUR BEATTY** **LSE:IGG IG Group** **LSE:IQE IQE** **LSE:ITM ITM Power** **LSE:ITRK Intertek** **LSE:MKS Marks and Spencer** **LSE:OXIG Oxford Instruments** **LSE:SFOR S4 Capital** **LSE:SMT Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust** **
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Updated charts published on : BALFOUR BEATTY, IG Group, IQE, ITM Power, Intertek, Marks and Spencer, Oxford Instruments, S4 Capital, Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust,
LSE:BBY BALFOUR BEATTY. Close Mid-Price: 832 Percentage Change: + 1.71% Day High: 836.5 Day Low: 810
In the event of BALFOUR BEATTY enjoying further trades beyond 836.5, the ……..
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View Previous BALFOUR BEATTY & Big Picture ***
LSE:IGG IG Group. Close Mid-Price: 1520 Percentage Change: + 0.46% Day High: 1531.5 Day Low: 1517
Further movement against IG Group ABOVE 1531.5 should improve acceleratio ……..
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View Previous IG Group & Big Picture ***
LSE:IQE IQE Close Mid-Price: 52.1 Percentage Change: -11.09% Day High: 72 Day Low: 48.5
Target met. In the event of IQE enjoying further trades beyond 72, the sh ……..
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View Previous IQE & Big Picture ***
LSE:ITM ITM Power. Close Mid-Price: 131.5 Percentage Change: + 40.12% Day High: 144.1 Day Low: 104
Target met. Continued trades against ITM with a mid-price ABOVE 144.1 sho ……..
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View Previous ITM Power & Big Picture ***
LSE:ITRK Intertek. Close Mid-Price: 4969 Percentage Change: + 4.50% Day High: 5038 Day Low: 4794
In the event of Intertek enjoying further trades beyond 5038, the share s ……..
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View Previous Intertek & Big Picture ***
LSE:MKS Marks and Spencer. Close Mid-Price: 368.7 Percentage Change: + 2.33% Day High: 372.9 Day Low: 354.1
Continued trades against MKS with a mid-price ABOVE 372.9 should improve ……..
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View Previous Marks and Spencer & Big Picture ***
LSE:OXIG Oxford Instruments. Close Mid-Price: 2876 Percentage Change: + 2.28% Day High: 2900 Day Low: 2760
Target met. Further movement against Oxford Instruments ABOVE 2900 should ……..
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View Previous Oxford Instruments & Big Picture ***
LSE:SFOR S4 Capital. Close Mid-Price: 40.4 Percentage Change: + 4.26% Day High: 41.8 Day Low: 38.65
Target met. Continued trades against SFOR with a mid-price ABOVE 41.8 sho ……..
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View Previous S4 Capital & Big Picture ***
LSE:SMT Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust. Close Mid-Price: 1444 Percentage Change: + 0.63% Day High: 1453.5 Day Low: 1434.5
Continued trades against SMT with a mid-price ABOVE 1453.5 should improve ……..
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View Previous Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust & Big Picture ***