The sixth in our series of educational videos produced by spread betting firm IG, university lecturer and technical analyst at Financial Trends, Patricia Elbaz, rattles through five key markets.

Clear candlestick charts are used – daily and weekly ones – covering this year’s price action and a very long term trend for the S&P 500. She points out some of the more interesting candlesticks, and I’d suggest that novices among you might want to pause and see if you can spot other interesting candles, checking you know their names.

She also uses some interesting simple moving averages. The 20-day one is a perennial favourite among the trading community. Here she suggests it’s also a good short term sentiment indicator, depending on whether prices are above or below it. Like many of us she also favours the 200-day moving average, suggesting that a break above it signals a bullish medium to long term trend.

A new one for me is her use of a 52-week moving average, in this case on her chart of the Japanese yen against the US dollar. Seen as a long-term indicator, what is equally fascinating is just how tight a range this currency pair has held since 2017. Like with the other markets she mentions where pivotal chart levels lie, in this case 110.00.

Finally, she discusses the issue of how very difficult it is to be bullish when the market is trading at record highs – for the weekly S&P 500 chart starting in 2010.

Her charts are clear, her diction likewise, and her pace spot on. I enjoyed it.

Click here to view.