07:45am  ~ I don’t expect I’ll be doing much trading today – later this morning I’m off to a clay pigeon shoot and then shopping in Norwich later this afternoon.

Equity markets had a good session yesterday and the momentum has carried on overnight in Asia with good gains in the Nikkei 225 and HangSeng. The S&P 500 and Dow Jones indices are almost back to the record levels we witnessed at the beginning of this month after the biggest two day gain for 3 years and this bullish sentiment is being attributed to good corporate earnings and economic data plus no interest rate hike until at least March next year. One caveat is the resistance level around 2080 on the S&P 500 which has been hit earlier this morning in the futures market. This confidence in the U.S. economy has also spilled over into the money market and traders have moved back into the Dollar, pushing it 55 points up against the Euro.

Oil is still in the news as the Saudi Arabia Oil Minister Ali Al-Naimi yesterday restated his commitment to keep current production levels steady which put further pressure on values with the U.S. WTI Crude eventually falling just over a Dollar to $55.13 after an initial surge in early trading and this morning it’s down a further 26 cents as I write this.

Gold is recovering slightly on high Asian demand ahead of the new year, it was up nearly $10 yesterday to $1198.  There was a nice reversal candle on the daily chart on Wednesday so we maybe seeing a short-term recovery towards the next resistance point at $1238

Market Close Thursday 18th December 2014:   Dow Jones 30  +421.28 @ 17,778.15  S&P 500  +48.34 @ 2,061.23  NASDAQ  +102.68 @ 4,267.77  FTSE 100  +129.52 @ 6,466.00  UK AIM  +8.72 @ 688.93  DAX 30  +266.63 @ 9,811.06  CAC 40  +137.58 @ 4,249.49  IBEX  +341.80 @ 10,391.30   Nikkei 225 (Today)  +386.22 @ 17,596.27  Hang Seng (currently)  +332.40 @ 23,164.1

07:55am  ~  Just been scrolling through my favourite charts and have spotted a ‘short’ UTB trade that’s triggered on the S&P 500, I am just waiting for a decent entry point. I was not thinking about trading this morning but it maybe some fun while I’m sitting here doing some emails.

08:10am  ~  I am now in a UTB position with a 21 pip stop loss.

09:15am  ~ Out of that position with a +21 pip profit and looking at a ‘long’ trendFX opportunity now on the same chart.

09:25am  ~  Now in ‘long’ on my S&P 500 chart with a trendFX strategy one position. Stop loss is 19 pips.

11:05am  ~  Just getting ready to go out and have just noticed my last S&P 500 trade has been stopped out at -19 pips.