09:20am CET (08:20 UK Time)  ~  Nice late start for me today after a tiring day out yesterday – I shall be around the house for most of the day so I will report back if I have any trades.

The big news yesterday, and the  main driver of markets was the European Central Bank President’s announcement that they were embarking on a programme of Quantitative Easing which is going to amount to over €1.2 trillion by the time it ends in September 2016 although Mario Draghi has intimated that the end of the programme can be open-ended, depending on how well it works for the Eurozone. On the back of this U.S. equities were given a boost as Transport and Bank shares rallied on the expectation of an increase in business due to the expansion of the European economy.

That’s the good news, but traders are also wary of what the fall-out is going to be after the weekend’s Greek elections where former communist and Left-Winger Alexis Tsipras is looking set to be their next President – and with that result will come a move away from the Eurozome-inspired economic austerity, so their maybe some selling going on today to neutralise the trading books and be ready to react on Monday.

Yesterday’s U.S. Crude inventory numbers were a day late due to the Martin Luther King bank holiday showed a large increase in stockpiles to just over 10 milion barrels against a consensus of 2.5 million so the small drop in WTI Crude values by just 70 cents by the close on Thursday although decreasing drilling in the U.S. is also weighing in and will in time reduce production.

Market Close Thursday 22nd January 2015:   Dow Jones 30  +259.70 @ 17,813.98  S&P 500  +31.03 @ 2,063.15  NASDAQ  +78.27 @ 4,270.36  FTSE 100  +68.59 @ 6,796.63  UK AIM  -3.42 @ 69.55  DAX 30  +136.39 @ 10,435.62  CAC 40  +67.98 @ 4,552.80  IBEX  175.30 @ 10,510.60   Nikkei 225 (Today)  +182.73 @ 17,511.75  Hang Seng (currently)  +280.24 @ 24,802.87

All time below are CET (GMT + 1hr)

09:25am  ~  There maybe a ‘short’ opportunity on the EUR/USD chart in a moment, if the price fall slightly.

09:40am  ~  I am now in a ‘short’ position on the EUR/USD chart using strategy one from my trendFX manual – the stop loss is 19 pips.

11:10am  ~  Happy with the move down that we’ve had on the EUR/USD chart so I am now out of my position, the score has come in at +107 pips. I do not often trade this chart as the daily movement is a lot less than Gold/Crude Oil and the S&P500 meaning the pips achieved per trade are a lot lower than I normally manage but due to th ECB announcement yesterday, the volumes are up considerably and there’s more scope today for bigger movements.

12:10pm  ~  There is now a possible ‘short’ UTB set-up on my French CAC40 chart.

12:25pm  ~  The CAC40 price has risen sufficiently to invalidate the trade set-up.  Off into town for some lunch now.

16:25pm  ~  Been back a short while and I have just got into a ‘short’ position on my Dax30 chart using a UTB set-up – stop loss is 42 pips.

18:40pm  ~  Just got back indoors and seen that my Dax trade was stopped out, so my total for the day has come in at +65 pips  - and we are going out for the evening quite soon so no more trading for the day.