08:15am  ~  After the holiday month of August gives us low volumes in the world’s financial markets I always look forward to the 2nd week of September as it seems as though finally traders are back at their desks and normal trading volumes can resume at last.  Is this the reason we had large gains on most indexes yesterday ?  Or was it the fact that there looks like a non-military solution to the Syrian Crisis, meaning tensions in the Middle East are dissipating slightly ?  We also had news of the Chinese trade balance surplus due to strong exports and this had a knock-on effect on raw material demand, so I suppose these factors put together all contributed to a good day on the markets for the bulls. We also had lower oil prices yesterday for reasons I’ve highlighted in previous days, and whenever there are lower energy prices, the stock market will rise as large companies will have lower costs.

From the markets in general to my own trading now, and I did manage to sit down just before 8am this morning to watch for any trade set-ups on my favourite charts. Volume seems to be up again today and a few minutes ago I got into a “short” position on my Brent Oil chart –  I am currently at break-even.

09:20am  ~ Well that was a quick trade ! I’ve just got out of my Brent trade with a small profit of +31 pips. With that one under my belt, I’m off for a cycle ride for an hour or so then back here to do some emails plus three Skype calls I have booked in before lunch. There is a rumour of a clay-pigeon shoot this afternoon but I am just waiting for confirmation from a friend at the farm up the road.

19:05pm  ~  I did end up at the shoot this afternoon and then a swift pint afterwards – and this has meant I have only just arrived home to do a bit of ‘evening’ trading. I will report back later with any interesting trade details.

20:35pm  ~  After 90 minutes in front of my S&P500 chart, I am now out of my only trade of the evening session.  A potential set-up showed itself around 7:30pm and a few minutes later the price rose sufficiently to trigger a ‘long’ trade.  A few minutes ago the price hit its 20 pip target and at the same time also came up against a long-term resistance level, so I came out of the market and have switched off my MT4 platform for another day.  Up to the cottage in Suffolk tomorrow morning for a few days by the sea.

Daily Target Reached ?  YES  (+51 pips)      I traded for just over an hour this morning and briefly this evening