09:05am (8:05 UK time)  ~  After a very late night, I am having a slow start to my Wednesday but will do some chart watching later this morning.

Overnight the Asian markets eased up slightly with the Japanese Nikkei index now on its 8th straight day of gains but, along with other indices, will probably tread water ahead of central bankers meetings later today.  The U.S. economy seems to be racing ahead with good news out yesterday regarding home building together with bullish corporate earnings, so there is doubt about how long Fed chairman Janet Yellen can keep interest rates at these record lows – we will see a report of the last rate meeting at 8pm tonight (7pm UK time) and the UK interest rate meeting minutes will be revealed soon after the European trading session opens this morning.

Anyone who was trading Oil yesterday will have noticed the large move downwards for West Texas Intermediate – this was blamed mainly on large stocks and falling demand which is fairly typical at the end of the summer months. WTI Crude ended yesterday at $94:48 down nearly $2 and is now at its lowest level since January although there is fairly strong support at $91:20 so we may see a slow down in the bearish trend soon. Gold had a third day of falls and is stuck in a trading range between $1324 and $1280 and it seems as though there is no real support at $1300 anymore – yesterday’s fall was blamed the strength of equities as traders are slowly becoming more bullish after recent geo-political troubles.

Market Close Tuesday 19th Aug. 2014:  Dow Jones 30  +80.85 @ 16,919.59  S&P 500  +9.86 @ 1,981.60  FTSE 100  +38.06 @ 6,779.31  DAX 30  +88.95 @ 9,334.28  CAC 40  +23.80 @ 4,254.45

09:45am  ~  Just watching a few charts while doing some trading updates to students and I can see a possible trendFX strategy 1 pattern setting up on my Dax 30 chart.

10:10am  ~  I am now in a ‘short’ position on my Dax chart with a 28 pip stop loss.

11:30am  ~  My Dax position is doing ok so far up by 10 pips so far.  There was an earlier trendFX ‘long’ opportunity on Brent Oil but I missed the entry as I was outside talking to the builders – it’s doing ok as well.

14:50pm  ~  We’re in the middle of the volatile U.S. trading session start and the Dax price has come down quite considerably but not really sure where’s it heading soon – so I’ve closed my position at +55 pips.

23:40pm  ~  I have been out helping the builders for the afternoon and most of the evening so no further trading to report.

Daily Target +20 pips

Pips Achieved +55 pips