08:25am CET (7:25 UK time) ~  We got back here from Barcelona late last night so it’s going to be a slow start this morning – but I will be doing some chart watching while going through my emails this morning plus my usual cycle ride in the next few hours.

Although I missed it yesterday, I am pleased to see that that my favourite index, the U.S. S&P 500, eventually touched the 2000 level briefly early in the session before succumbing to a bit of profit taking and spending the rest of the day in a bearish trend. This initial rise for equities was no doubt due to Europe’s earlier rise following the European Central Bank’s President Mario Draghi eventually realising that the half-hearted policies he has used in the past have not been any use and on Friday he hinted that more exciting stimulus is needed to drag the EU region out of a possible recession and this will be instigated very soon apparently. This news also buoyed European equities, both the German Dax and French CAC ended in positive territory yesterday. All this good news was tempered by continuing geo-political problems in Ukraine with rumoured Russian incursions into the country together with the possibility of the U.S. planning the start of a bombing campaign in Syria — this also weighed heavily on U.S. markets and helped their indices finish slightly off from their highs.

Bears were prevalent in the oil markets yesterday with WTI Crude shedding 14 cents on the day due to U.S. Dollar strength and good production and stock numbers and is now getting closer to the major support level at $91:50. Brent Crude has also experienced a prolonged fall since the last week of June and is coming close to the significant $100 level.  Over on the Gold market I have noticed a small support level around $1275 from back in April/May this year and this morning it has bounced off that point again to rebound after yesterday’s losses – are there bargain hunters out today before the bearish trend resumes ?  Impending U.S. interest rate rises, higher equity markets and falling global demand are all conspiring to keep the value in check at the moment.

Market Close Monday 25th Aug. 2014:  Dow Jones 30  +75.65 @ 17.076.77  S&P 500  +9.52 @ 1,997.92  FTSE 100  -2.41 @ 6,775.25  DAX 30  +170.97 @ 9,510.14  CAC 40  +89.31 @ 4,3142.11

10:05am (CET)  ~  Just back from a quick cycle ride along the beach path and as far as my charts are doing, the only spark of excitement is a possible UTB pattern starting to develop on my Gold chart.

10:40am  ~  A few minutes ago I got into a ‘short’ position on my Gold chart – I have a 15 pip stop loss.

12:15pm  ~  I am still in my Gold position and it’s trundling along at +13 pips currently.

13:55pm  ~  I’m off out to lunch with friends so I’ve closed off my Gold trade at +16 pips as we are approaching the volatile U.S. trading session open.

19:10pm  ~  Just got inside after helping the builders for the past few hours and I’ve switched on my S&P500 chart to see if any “Trade With A Day Job” patterns pop-up over the next few hours.

23:40pm  ~  I did not have any trades earlier while I was watching my S&P 500 chart on and off upto 8:30pm

Daily Target +20 pips

Pips Achieved +16 pips