Morning all.
I think there is real value in pursuing ways of drawing FTSE action 'tomorrow morning' from FTSE and US action 'today'.
Jon - I recognise what you say about the futures market as an 'intra-night' factor driving the SB quotes when NY has closed. I have totally banned myself from setting SB stops or orders when London is closed as the SB quotes are so unpredictable when compared only with the underlying indices. I cancel stops overnight (heresy I know) or set them many hundreds of points out so they cannot possibly be hit - if not I will be taken out every night. I restore sensible stops or orders when London re-opens.
Geo - Looks like a nice programme (I had registered but never got to grips). I am always in doubt as to whether its Dow or S&P that drives. Possibly its a joint effort, but I am hoping that the FTSE is the back seat passenger who occasionally points out the window and says 'we should be going that way'.
There is an issue with SB FTSE quotes tracking the Dow after the FTSE closes. That was an early lesson for all of us I am sure in how to set a sensible stop only to find next day it was hit before bed-time. So, if Dow goes up 100pts after 1630, we should see the FTSE rise 50pts next morning, but the SB quote is probably already there - marginal profit only on the over-shoot. I bet we have all seen the FTSE open high after a strong NY evening session, over-shoot and bring a modest profit, then fall back by late morning and hit all sell stops, only to rocket as the Dow opened and built up on its strong previous close in the pm/evening. Frustration all round.
What might be a worthwhile target would be when the FTSE closes showing potential trend changel, the Dow does likewise or shows neutral but does not actually start its move. Look at the FTSE 28/04 - a weak day in an uptrend with an unusally narrow range but a relatively strong Close compared with intra-day range, suggesting bear power weakening. This pre-cursor pattern was not negated by the NY Close, where the day resembled a doji in a downleg in an uptrend, and the US indices showed no major upward move that evening. So it would have been easy to take a long position on the FTSE at a price well below the previous Close, and leading to a potential 90+pts next day alone. Got more points fom this one move than several previous week's scalping attempts.
I don't know a name for this trans-Atlantic ready, steady, go view (can't call it a strategy yet) using twin pre-cursors but I am looking out for it occurring again, as long as it follows the underlying trend.
SP relatively speaking, leading the way.
