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The FTSE 100 has staged a stunning rally over the past week or so, shooting beyond 6,400, albeit temporarily. However, much of this renewed strength looks firmly based on hopes that US interest rates will be cut at the Fed meeting next week.

Beyond that, things could begin to get somewhat quieter as investors’ thoughts increasingly turn to the holidays at the end of the month, although this would be a surprise to many. Angus Campbell, head of sales at Capital Spreads, points out that December is usually a very active month for the stock market. We’re certainly not thinking about Christmas yet and our attention remains firmly focused on our trading bottom line, which looks a fair bit healthier this week thanks to some solid profits from our short position on DIY retailer Kingfisher (KGF). That play has paid off handsomely after our target was hit on 27 November. We went short on the troubled company, which has seen CEO Gerry Murphy depart and analysts cut their dividend forecast, on 22 November at 173.6p, and we have locked in an impressive 8.81% profit at the current 158.3p.

Another success was the UK’s number two supermarket chain, Sainsbury (SBRY), which saw its shares plunge 21% at the start of November after successfully fighting off takeover advances. We went long on the stock on 22 November at 413.5p, betting that the sell off was overdone, and at the current 438p we have a nice 5.93% profit. There should be more to come too thanks to the traditional food and booze stockpiling that goes on ahead of Christmas.

We’ve also done OK on engineering company Rolls Royce (RR.), up 1.26% at 523p in just a week, although our short on commercial property giant British Land (BLND) has turned against us, but our punt on Russian oil giant Gazprom (OGZD:MOSCOW) is a handy 5.78% up at $53.10, despite the correction in oil prices.