Ever notice how when one major financial market gets a wee sniffle, world financial markets in general tend to catch a bit of a cold. And when things are running hot for the big markets, well, world indices tend to swim in a sea of upward arrows. It's a knock-on or ripple effect. The big macro-news of the day, week or month tends to influence all markets to a degree. Now, not always you must understand, and rarely with any real predictability but more and more so of late (check out the three to 12 month charts) and particularly in turbulent financial times.

So what we've done at DOW follows FTSE is attempted to track the relationship (if you want to call it that) between the closing price direction (up or down) of two of the world financial market's larger players in the New York Stock Exchange and the London Stock Exchange. And more specifically, their two leading financial indices - the Dow Jones Industrial Index (DJIA) or the DOW in financial parlance and the FTSE 100 (FTSE). To do that, we've dredged up DOW and FTSE closing price data going back to 1984 so we've got a healthy sample size to work with thanks to our good friends at Yahoo Finance.

Now why the daily closing price direction (up or down) of these two indices often match (57% of the time in 2012), well that's up to you to ascertain. We make no predictions here at DOW follows FTSE, we simply provide the data to help you to arrive at your own conclusions.

What we do know is that with a seven hour window seperating happenings on the New York Stock Exchange and the London Stock Exchange, there's plenty of time to make your own decision as to whether on a given day you think the DOW will follow what the FTSE has done earlier (finishing up or down) and to place a trade on that outcome.

So what we hope is that DOW follows FTSE becomes one of the many tools in your index-watching arsenal and when the moons align that it helps you to make a profitable trading decision or two.

If you're looking for a financial spread trading account where you can open a position on whether the DOW or the FTSE (or many other leading world indices) will finish up or down on a given day, we suggest you take a look at IG Index, the leader in financial spread trading. Their platform really is second to none.

Or for a financial betting experience with a difference, open a account with as little as $10, predict DOW or FTSE direction (up or down) over a duration of your choice, select your payout and instantly see your total risk and return. provides a simple way to begin trading the indices.

Remember that past financial data is just that, it's no crystal ball as to what will happen today, tomorrow or in the future. Always be aware that there are many factors that effect markets and keep an eye on local finacial events calendars if you plan to trade on the indices.

Good luck in your trades and thanks for dropping by.