Early warning system

And indeed, there are worrying stirrings, with a number of sell signals on fringe indices but most notably here in Blighty, where Coppock delivered a sell signal on the FTSE 100 at the end of June. That signal held firm last month, although with the readings drifting only gently downwards a bullish reversal could still come if risk-on sentiment returns to the UK markets – and in fact, since the end of July the blue-chip index has staged a mini-recovery, at least until President Trump rattled his nuclear sabre at North Korea this week. 

That stand-off could yet still prompt a rush for gold, whose Coppock reading remains stuck in sell territory, or a tilt back into fixed income, where corporate and index-linked gilts slipped into the red in May to complete the set of bearish signals. And although we are mindful that determining links between geopolitics and markets is rather tricky, it adds to uncertainty around how much further the current bull market will extend.