FTSE 100 Daily Candle Chart

A look at the chart for the FTSE 100 reveals several interesting details following Friday’s close in London. First, note the volume which is falling as the index is moving higher – always a bad sign, and for those of you who have studied volume spread analysis, will know exactly why, but in simple terms if a stock ( or an index ) is moving higher on falling volume, then the market makers are simply marking the market up, and not taking part in the move themselves. This indicates that they are likely to move the market lower in the short term. The second important point to note from the daily chart is that the opening on Friday was gapped up, and closed with a spinning top candle. If this is confirmed on Monday with a move lower, then we will have a morning star pattern, an excellent signal of a reversal in the move up. If you are confident, then I would suggest a short position on Monday, for those less brave I would suggest waiting until Tuesday. If the FTSE 100 falls on Monday, then we could have an evening star candle pattern and a strong signal of a short term reversal. I would suggest a stop loss position somewhere around the 3.9450 region.

In order to help you with your financial spread betting trading I have added several new services to the site. First there is an economic calendar which provides details of all the fundamental news items from around the world, including details of the forecast and previous figures, but if you prefer your news on video, then the latest currency news is the place to go, with updates three times a day. In addition there is a live news feed, and for the latest currency prices, live currency charts covering over 70 of the world’s most popular traded pairs. If you are trading the major indices around the world, latest prices are available on the live index charts, and for gold, silver, copper and oil just check the commodity prices charts. The latest stock prices are provided for the major stocks and shares in Europe, Asia and the Far East.

Shire plc - Daily Candle Chart 9th March 2009

My suggestion for tomorrow’s spread bet is on the London markets and is Shire PLC, which closed this evening on the cash market at 798.50p per share, and I am suggesting that this is a buying opportunity for the short term. First, following this evening’s close we have a long legged doji, an excellent signal that the market is indecisive and could be ready to reverse from the current downwards trend, and whilst the bulls have not overpowered the bears, the candle suggest that a turn is possible. The second point to note is that the spreads of the down bars are narrowing, suggesting that the momentum of the downwards move is reducing, and combined with this we can see that the volume of the last three down bars is also falling, which again is an excellent signal that the selling pressure is coming to an end. Finally we note the large volume on the day under the doji candle, suggesting that buying or stopping volume has now entered the market. Using volume spread analysis combined with our candlestick analysis, this suggests that we could see a rise in Shire plc prices in the next few days from the current price of 798.50p. I would suggest placing a stop loss somewhere below 760p.