08:15am  ~  Up to the cottage in Suffolk later today but first a few hours here in the study catching up on emails and Skype calls – and some chart watching too.

Concerns during yesterday’s trading sessions over a slowdown in China and a failed attempt by the US and Russia to reach an agreement over the Crimean region, spurred a fresh sell off in the global equities. The Dow Jones dropped 75 points to 16,339 as investors were also spooked by the first ever corporate debt default in China, something that many traders thought would not occur, believing that the Chinese Central Bank would just not allow this type of scenario.

As expected, the WTI crude prices shot down to the $100.00 support level but then finished another $1.58 lower at $99.40 on estimates the US oil stockpiles increased last week. Conversely, Brent crude rallied on fears of escalating tensions between Ukraine, Russia and the West.  Amid this turmoil, Gold proved to be a handy ‘safe-haven’ asset and rose almost $10 to finish close to $1350 last night, and in overnight trading stretched itself further to just over $1360 – a new recent high.

08:55am  ~  The markets are still getting going during this first part of the European trading session, but there does look as though there’s a possible ‘short’ opportunity on my S&P500 chart.

09:10am  ~  I am in the S&P500 with a ‘short’ trade, the stop loss is 29 pips.

11:20am  ~  My trade is still doing ok so I’m not going off to Southwold quite yet, I’ll see how the position pans out.

13:25pm  ~  The U.S. trading session is just about to open, so I am now out of my S&P500 position as there can be some volatility in the market, plus ‘head-office’ really wants to get going up to the cottage now. I have come out with a 62 pip profit.

19:00pm  ~  I am a bit late getting to the charts tonight for my “Trade With A day Job” system – we have been on a friends boat for most of the afternoon that’s stuck in the harbour after an accident. I’m going to switch on the MT4 charts on now and see if there’s any opportunities for a trade.

19:40pm  ~  There’s not much of the U.S. trading session left but I am now in a ‘long’ trade on the S&P500.

20:05pm  ~  I’m done with my trading for the evening, right on the U.S. session close  -  I have managed a small 25 pip profit. Usually the Yanks finish their session at 21:00hrs UK time but as their clocks went forward an hour on Sunday they are out of kilter with us until the end of this month when we go onto British Summertime.

Daily Target Reached ?  YES  (+87 pips)