09:05am  ~  I have a pile of emails to catch-up on today after being away, so I shall also watch a few charts as well while here in the study, although with the FOMC statement later this evening there might be limited movement in the main indices in the run up. The weather here does not look like it’s going to improve for a while so I may slip over to Spain in the next few days.

There’s positive news abounding as the markets open, Turkey has attempted to delay it’s own currency troubles by raising interest rates by 4.25% overnight and that seems to have steadied the recent fears of an emerging market fall – Asian markets and index futures have all reacted positively so far. On top of that, President Obama’s State Of The Union Address late last night showed he was in a bullish mood regarding the U.S. economy, pledging to do what is deemed necessary to keep people in work. Ahead of the FOMC policy meeting consumer confidence in the US beat estimates rising to 80.7 and at the same seemed to dismiss the disappointing durable goods orders figures. With this news, the Dow Jones 30 index recovered from a two day sell off gaining back 100 points to 15,939. It would seem that traders are still optimistic that an overall better than expected corporate earnings season could make a second round of tapering a safe bet.

10:00am  ~  There is a trendFX trade opportunity setting up on my Gold chart so I’m going to watch it for the next 5/10 minutes to see if the price goes high enough to trigger a ‘long’ position.

10:25am  ~  I am in the Gold trade mentioned above with an 18 pip stop loss, and there is now the possibility of a ‘short’ trade on the S&P500 – also using one of the trendFX strategies.

12:35pm  ~  Still in both trades – the S&P500 trade came off just after 10:30am.

14:40pm  ~  I am now out of the S&P500 trade with a profit of  139 pips.  The Gold trade looks as though it’s not long for this world either !

15:00pm  ~  As predicted, the Gold trade has been closed as well – I have ended with a +103 pip score on that one. I’m going to go out in the rain for a cycle ride now and hopefully be back for the “Trade With A Day Job” session this evening.

17:10pm  ~  I am now in another ‘short’ trade on the S&P500 –  this time with my “Trade With A Day Job” strategy, the stop loss on this one is 19 pips.

18:50pm  ~  We have the FOMC announcement at 7pm (UK time) so I am now out of the S&P500  -   my trade has managed +60 pips

Daily Target Reached ?  YES (+302 pips)