08:10am CET (7:10 UK time)  ~  No trading for me today – I am off on holiday at lunchtime until next Tuesday with my two sons – but I shall be doing a bit of emailing in the next few hours plus 3 Skype calls with new traders.

European markets are set to calm down slightly today after good gains so far this week – incursions into Ukraine by the Russian Army now looks like fresh invasion hopes for President Putin so traders are going to be factoring in some risk for equities and hopes for some sort of monetary stimulus for the Eurozone seems to have been premature according to German Finance Minister Schaeuble which means that markets may discount this and fall slightly as they factored it in last week.  There is also German Consumer Price Index numbers and employment levels this morning which will add some volume to the markets – and this afternoon there is U.S. Department Of Labor unemployment claims data and Oil Stock Levels at Cushing Wyoming to keep investors on their toes for the rest of today’s session.

With the U.S. Labor Day holiday on Monday signalling the end to the ‘Driving-Season’ there is an expected drop in demand for petrol which pushed WTI Crude price down on the day – it finished at $93.71 slicing 16 cents off its value.  Gold traders were buying yesterday – mainly on the back of a strong dollar but more due to rising tensions in Ukraine which escalated to such an extent that German Chancellor Angela Merkel got on the phone to her Russian counterpart and demanded an explanation about reports that Putin’s troops had deliberately passed across into Ukraine in an obvious act of aggression – as usual the Russian President denied any warmongering, explaining it was merely an ‘accident’.  Gold ended at $1283.60 up nearly $2

Market Close Wednesday 27th Aug. 2014:  Dow Jones 30  +15.31 @ 17,122.01  S&P 500  +0.10 @ 2,000.12  FTSE 100  +7.90 @ 6,830.66  DAX 30  -18.44 @ 9,569.71  CAC 40  +1.85 @ 4,395.26

Daily Target +20 pips

Pips Achieved – No Trading Today