07:40am (UK time)  ~  I am joining a group of friends in a cycle ride up towards Lowestoft this morning but before then I ‘ll be here in the study catching up on emails and watching some charts.

The initial optimism in equity markets yesterday was slowly wiped out as the day progresses, first with higher than expected U.S. oil stocks and then the European Central Bank made a surprising announcement that they would not accept Greek government bonds as security for loans to its commercial banks.  This was basically a warning shot to the new Greek government to get them to carry on with the austerity measures that were originally negotiated at the time of their bail-out or they will have to leave the Eurozone – today’s meeting between the Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis meets his German Finance counterpart  Wolfgang Schäuble today so there will be some much awaited news later this evening.

The U.S. WTI Crude price fell nearly $3 by the end of yesterday’s session after oil supplies at Cushing were announced to be at their highest level since the early 1980′s and UK Brent Crude had a similiar move downwards, closing at $54.55 on Wednesday evening and overnight is still trading down currently at $53.13.

Gold moved up from its $1255 support level once again yesterday on the back safe haven purchasing after the ECB announced their refusal to accept Greek bonds, it gained over $8 during the day to finish at $1269.10 and is currently slightly higher still at $1271.

Market Close Wednesday 4th February 2015:   Dow Jones 30  +6.62 @ 17,673.02  S&P 500  -8.52 @ 2,041.51  NASDAQ  -7.95 @ 4,221.20  FTSE 100  -11.78 @ 6,860.02  UK AIM  +0.76 @ 694.03  DAX 30  +20.37 @ 10,911.32  CAC 40  +18.40 @ 4,696.30  IBEX  -20.40 @ 10,577.80   Nikkei 225 (Today)  -168.05 @ 17,510.65  Hang Seng (currently)  +108.01 @ 24,787.77

09:15am  ~  The only thing I can see on my charts at the moment is a possible UTB pattern setting up on my FTSE100 chart – more soon…

09:30am  ~  If the FTSE price rises above 6829 it will trigger a ‘long’ trade, the stop loss looks to be around 17 pips.  Friends have arrived for the cycle ride so I have now set an order with a 20 pip profit target.

11:15am  ~  Just got back from cycle ride and have seen my FTSE trade turned out ok  (+20 pips)and I have also just got into a Dax30 UTB trade as the price was still hovering around the entry level  - my stop loss is a ‘whopping’ 16 pips.

11:55am  ~  Now out of my second UTB trade of the morning – it’s managed a profit of +41 pip.  I have just taken my usual chart screenshot to send to students.

12:10pm  ~  I am now in a ‘long’ trendFX strategy one position on my U.S. Crude (WTI) chart – my stop loss is 32 pips.

13:55pm  ~  Happy with the move up on the WTI chart, I’m out of my trade with a +93 pip profit.

14:00pm  ~ Late lunch at the Lord Nelson now, pip count sufficient for the day…