08:10am CET (07:10 UK time)  ~  I shall mostly be here at home today doing emails and chart watching but there is also a cycle ride to Cala Sant Vincenc with a group of neighbours this morning.

The Euro group meeting are continuing today and yesterday’s get together in Brussels honed in on the problems in Greece which has has the effect of concentrating traders minds on what could go wrong, so equities took a tumble during Monday’s trading session through a majority of European countries with the marked exception of Germany who’s Dax Index ended up on the day mainly due to the fact that ECB started their money printing exercise which is going to have a marked effect on the German economy.

On Friday there was an bearish reaction in the U.S. markets to encouraging employment numbers and now that traders have gathered their thoughts they now see that the move down was slightly overdone, so both major indices regained lost ground yesterday to end up on the day, the main Dow Jones was ahead by nearly 180 points. On the other hand the options market is showing that there is an increased likelihood that rates will rise in June/July this year, upto a 23% chance against 18% at the end of February so that will weight heavily on the markets as the month progresses.

U.S. Crude is still trading in a narrow range between $48 and $54 and is currently sitting at $49:83 after a positive session yesterday on news from the U.S. Government that their shale producers are slowing production.

Market Close Monday 9th March 2015:   Dow Jones 30  -278.94 @ 17,856.78  S&P 500  -29.78 @ 2,071.26  NASDAQ  -52.83 @ 4,399.23  FTSE 100  -49.34 @ 6,911.80  UK AIM  +3.99 @ 718.11  DAX 30  +46.96 @ 11,550.97  CAC 40  +0.84 @ 4,964.35  IBEX  -32.50 @ 11,091.90   Nikkei 225 (Today)  -180.45 @ 18,790.55  Hang Seng (currently)  +0.53 @ 24,164.53

All times below are CET (UK + 1hr)

09:40am  ~  There is a lot of bearish charts at the moment and there’s a possible short on I can see on Brent Crude with one of the trendFX strategies.

09:55am  ~  I am now in that ‘short’ position on my Brent Crude chart – my stop loss is 24 pips.

10:20am  ~ Fellow riders have arrived for our cycle so I’ve set my stop loss at break even as the trade is doing quite well  and set the profit at 48 pips (twice original stop loss)

12:25pm  ~  Just got back from our cycle ride and my trade is still going down but has not hit it’s target yet.

12:40pm  ~  The Brent Crude price has hit a support level and is now starting to rise so I am out of my position at +24 pips.

13:25pm  ~  My Brent Crude chart has just shown another bearish trendFX set-up, so I am once again a ‘short’ position. The stop loss this time is 20 pips and there seems to be slightly more profit potential this time as the price has just crossed over a short-term support line.

14:30pm  ~  Still in the trade, the Brent price has come down nicely.

16:50pm  ~  Some friends have arrived so I’ve closed my trade off at +76 pips as it’s a decent profit.