#FTSE One thing about this time of year is the feeling you’re writing an article you really cannot be bothered with, secure in the knowledge no-one is going to bother reading it anyway. Financial volumes through London tend confirm most folk are spending time avoiding family, Covid-19, the markets and Europe but to be fair, the markets appear to be ending the year the way usually happens, with a whimper of relief.
Last year, the final full day of trading recorded £3.2bn turnover in London. This year, the final day calculated at £2.9bn traded through the exchange, a minimal swing given the usual daily variance.
On the final day of trading last year, we included a “Print This Out” section giving trigger levels to watch, especially if everything started go wrong. Particularly nasty was our comment against Wall St, suggesting a change of underwear if the index fell below 27,000. The ensuing reversal to 18,000 proved memorable, except we completely forgot we’d written it (nor printed it out!).
Similarly, the S&P was given with a reversal trigger at 2,930. It fell to 2,200 points. France triggered 5,380, finally halting at 3,640 points while Germany triggered at 12,470 and bottomed down at 8,250 points. And along came the FTSE, triggering at 6,740 and finding a bottom at 4,890 points.
For fun, we’ve put together a little table below. As can be seen, Covid-19 provided around 1/3rd reversals in Europe & the USA, the FTSE being a real surprise by failing to experience such an exaggerated drop as the other major markets.
| World Market | Trigger Level | Covid Drop | Drop %ge |
| Wall St | 27000 | 18000 | -33% |
| France | 5380 | 3640 | -32% |
| Germany | 12470 | 8250 | -33% |
| UK FTSE | 6740 | 4890 | -27% |
This year, we’re not going to attempt a similar feature, simply due to the markets being all over the place in the period since the final Covid-19 drop in mid-March. There’s no doubt the markets want to recover, strongly, but if we take our favourite “If It Were A Share” stance, everything pretty fragile and negative news could promote some very fast reversals. In the case of the FTSE, only above 6,750 or so shall we dare to believe recovery to be genuine.
As for Thursday, a half day of trading, below 6,550 looks pretty capable of reversals to an initial 6,521 points. If broken (visually unlikely), our secondary works out at 6,465 points.
Alternately, above 6,604 shall tend suggest the possibility of the index ending the year on a high note. Above this level allows strength to an initial 6,643 with secondary, if bettered, a rather more exciting 6,695 points.
Our best wishes for next year. As usual, we shall return on 5th January, thanks to Scotland alone providing a “sober up day” as a 2nd public holiday.
| Time Issued | Market | Price At Issue | Short Entry | Fast Exit | Slow Exit | Stop | Long Entry | Fast Exit | Slow Exit | Stop | Prior |
| 9:58:44PM | BRENT | 51.59 | 50.91 | 50.58 | 50.14 | 51.68 | 51.9 | 52.115 | 52.55 | 51.23 | ‘cess |
| 10:08:13PM | GOLD | 1894.78 | 1871 | 1865 | 1855 | 1886 | 1899 | 1908 | 1921 | 1883 | ‘cess |
| 10:10:13PM | FTSE | 6520 | 6504 | 6480 | 6433 | 6578 | 6577 | 6655.5 | 6706 | 6527 | ‘cess |
| 10:11:50PM | FRANCE | 5572 | 5571 | 5558.5 | 5536 | 5601 | 5616 | 5635 | 5656 | 5581 | ‘cess |
| 10:14:07PM | GERMANY | 13658 | 13638 | 13583.5 | 13477 | 13713 | 13775 | 13793 | 13844 | 13694 | |
| 10:15:55PM | US500 | 3732 | 3728 | 3725 | 3718 | 3738 | 3746 | 3755 | 3766 | 3732 | |
| 10:18:18PM | DOW | 30428 | 30371 | 30205 | 30070 | 30481 | 30522 | 30591.5 | 30698 | 30390 | |
| 10:20:35PM | JAPAN | 27455 | 27401 | 27341 | 27227 | 27542 | 27614 | 27699 | 27821 | 27455 | |
| 10:20:49PM | NASDAQ | 12852 | Clueless |