The bullish start to the day really set the tone with the FTSE 100 breaking through the 6200 and finishing up just shy of 6250 at the close. Looks like the much anticipated Santa rally has already begun!

This morning I placed a counter-trend trade at the 6167 level looking for price to retrace, and shortly after closed it out for a 5 point loss due to the market spiking up rapidly. I managed to place a second trade, this time with the trend as price ran into support from another existing intraday level as well as the 20EMA. That netted me 8 points. The final trade was after the US markets had opened, based on a classic pullback to the moving average, which was closed out for 15 points.

Running late this morning so will explain later this evening …

It ended up being an inactive trading day for me as I was called away for a pre-Christmas lunch with a few friends, after which we headed off to Covent Garden to watch “The Force Awakens” in 3D at the Odean iMax cinema. Awesome movie BTW, highly recommended!

As for the markets, the FTSE managed to recover strongly after a slight dip this morning and was back to the top of it’s daily range by the close; it proceeded  to break through the 6100 level after market hours and is currently trading at 6125.

My thoughts going into this morning’s session were as follows:

• On the daily charts, the FTSE had clearly broken out of the triangle pattern to the downside, then pulled back up to retest the bottom of that triangle before declining again yesterday.
• On the hourly chart, the FTSE broke out of the downward channel to the upside, only to head back down to retest it, bouncing up off the upper trendline.
• Overnight the FTSE had recovered from yesterdays lows, and I expect the FTSE to be range bound for most of the day. The plan of action was to short any pullbacks to key levels.

Took a short at 6085 as price pushed up to re-test the intraday support and resistance level at 6088, which was closed out for a healthy profit.