In the UK, many investors like to trade the movement of the FTSE 100. Looking more closely it appears that the sellers are still waiting for the blowout move to the upside that might signal the final exhaustion move. Since March 2009 the moves higher have all been of the slow-grind-higher variety. The biggest daily move higher has barely beaten 120 points.
For those who have been convinced that doom is only just around the corner the lack of any real drama is beginning to chip away at their convictions. Many of the market comments these days are for ‘more of the same’, as opposed to the almost universal bearishness that has gone hand in hand with the eight month rally.
Naturally the major world markets influence each other and, in Asia, intervention from the Japanese is becoming more and more likely. The Yen’s appreciation continues to cause damage to their big exporters.
The result is further weakness for the Nikkei 225 which has substantially underperformed in the last couple of months.
The 2009 Dubai Debt Crisis saw swift selling in the world stock markets. However, many markets recouped much of their losses from the crisis within 7-10 days. There were particularly strong and quick moves from Asian markets such as the Nikkei and the Australian index.
US markets like the UK’s FTSE 100 have generally been grinding higher and Range Trading, ie speculating on markets to constantly move up and down has been order of the day for many investors.
The most common feature of all the stock markets since mid-2009, apart from the slow move higher has been the occulting nature of the markets. Good news has been followed by poor data which has been produced buying opportunities for investors. Bad news has then been followed by a good corporate reporting season and so on.
All this has given anyone trading the ranges plenty of volatility.
