08:45am CET (07:45 UK time)  ~  I’m going to be at home this morning dealing with my burgeoning inbox and then we’re off for a short sail after lunch. I’ll report back if I have any trades.

Markets are still rising with the Dow Jones 30 index finishing at another record high last night, although this morning’s movements might be more subdued ahead of today’s FOMC meeting where traders may glean some clues as to the timing of the forthcoming Fed rate rise.  The S&P 500 was also at record-breaking levels, over the past 5 weeks the index has risen over 178 points, or 1780 pips if you’ve traded your way up recently. There is also the result of the Bank Of England’s last interest rate vote which is going to give traders in the UK clues about the bank’s thoughts in the coming months – expectations are that rates are going to be on hold until at least the middle of 2015 as a result of the Eurozone economic slowdown.  The German Dax is still on its way up after the price-reversal in the middle of October and this week it has risen above the recent 9450 resistance level, partly due to the ECB President Mario Draghi seemingly becoming more serious about propping up the EU’s economy.

Crude Oil is still under pressure as rumours that OPEC will not reduce output at their meeting next week even though global demand is falling, the feeling is that WTI Crude could move down to around $70 by the end of next week unless the Arabs see the wider picture and cut production  Gold was buoyed yesterday by massive Russian buying, it rose more than $16 by the end of Tuesday’s session, Putin is hedging his bets by adding to his country’s reserves. The price is now well above the important $1180 level although there maybe some profit-taking today.

Market Close Tuesday 18th November 2014:   Dow Jones 30  +40.07 @ 17,687.82  S&P 500  +10.48 @ 2,051.80  NASDAQ  +28.40 @ 4,242.19  FTSE 100  +37.16 @ 6,709.13  UK AIM  +2.20 @ 718.61  DAX 30  +150.18 @ 9,456.53  CAC 40  +36.28 @4,262.38  IBEX +123.90 @ 10,432.90   Nikkei 225 (Today)  -55.31 @ 17,288.75  Hang Seng (currently)  -150.12  @ 23,379.05

All times below are Central European Time (CET) 1hr ahead of GMT

08:55am ~  Just had a quick two minute scroll through a group of 9 charts and there’s not much happening on the markets so far as far as my strategies are concerned, so I’m off on a cycle ride for an hour – target 25 miles.

11:55am  ~  Not any opportunities yet on my charts, but there maybe a ‘long’ trendFX trade setting up on my WTI Crude chart ahead of the U.S. Oil Inventories release at 16:30pm.

12:40pm  ~ The WTI Crude price has risen sufficiently to trigger my ‘long’ trade so I’m in the market with a 30 pip stop loss.

14:00pm  ~  I am off out to the marina in a minute for the rest of the day so I’ve set my stop loss and take profit levels as the Oil market may get volatile as the afternoon develops. I have set the profit level at 30 pips but brought the stop loss up tighter at -20 pips, just below where it is now.

23:05pm  ~ Got back a short while ago and just seen that my earlier trade on WTI Crude was closed off with a +30 pip profit.