07:45pm  ~  Builders are finishing here to day so I shall spend most of the day helping them but I do have two Skype calls early this morning plus a cycle ride with some friends at 9am.

With no meaningful economic or political news out over the weekend, the markets this morning will be influenced largely by the Asian session overnight and already futures trading has hit the Dow Jones and S&P500.  Japan’s Nikkei index ended down 0.5 percent today after one of its largest constituents Softbank dropped over 4% due to profit-taking in Alibaba which had their stock market debut last week. As you may have seen, Alibaba shares hit a high of just under $100 after their IPO level of $68 and Softbank are a major shareholder, so have suffered more than others.

After lunchtime European Central Bank President Mario Draghi is due to testify on monetary policy before the EU Parliament in Brussels so there maybe some unexpected movement in the major European indices as well as the Euro and the FTSE will also react to the fact that Grocer Tesco overstated their profits at the last announcement by £250,000 so their shares may move down towards the £2 level after closing on Friday at 230 pence.  On Friday the Dow Jones hit a new high in early futures trading following the Scottish Referendum result but slowly succumbed to traders taking profits for the rest of the day as did the wider S&P 500 and there does not seem to be much news around today to encourage traders to get buying again.

Over on the Oil market, the impending U.S. interest rate hike is dampening prices, WTI Crude fell 16 cents on Friday to close at $91:81 per barrel even though Opec has stated they will restrict production in the coming months in an attempt to prop the price up which has steadily dropped since 13th June this year.  As equities have risen since the middle of August, inevitably Gold has taken a tumble as a result and Friday’s close at $1217.20 meant it’s now getting closer to the next support level at $1180 as falling demand in Asian and investors piling into equities offers no support at all to its value.

Market Close Friday 19th Sept. 2014:  Dow Jones 30  +13.75 @ 17,279.74  S&P 500  -0.96 @ 2,010.40  NASDAQ  -2.99 @4,103.08  FTSE 100  +18.63 @ 6,837.92  DAX 30  +1.13 @ 9,799.26  CAC 40  -3.48 @ 4,461.22

09:20am  ~ Off out on my cycle ride now – slightly later than intended as I’ve been watching my WTI Crude chart as there was a UTB pattern setting up.  I have just entered the position ‘long’ with an 18 pip stop loss.

11:05am  ~  Been up the beach track towards Lowestoft on our bikes but back now and my WTI trade is still running, currently a few pips in profit.

12:20pm  ~  The price momentum has slowed slightly and I am also happy with the +58 pip profit I’ve amassed so I am now out of my WTI position.

16:50pm  ~  Just got inside after being in the garden all afternoon working as a labourer in the JCB cab but I’m going to watch my S&P 500 chart for a couple of hours now.

17:10pm  ~  Dead on 5 o’clock one of the “Trade With A Day Job” patterns popped up on my chart so I am in the market with a ‘long’ position – the stop loss is 20 pips.

17:55pm  ~  That was  quick 20 pip profit – out of my position now.  There is a ‘short’ opportunity that looks as though it’s going to trigger now as well.

18:15pm  ~  I am now out of my second trade of the evening – another 20 pips.  The stop loss on that trade was 11 pips.

Daily Target  +20 pips

Pips Achieved  +98 pips