08:00am CET (7:00am UK Time)    At home for most of today ahead of a trip back to the UK tomorrow – if I have any trades during the day I’ll report back here.

Here in Europe the main news yet again is the spectre of a Greek exit from the EU and its common currency. Last week’s joint IMF – World Bank meeting ended up going into the weekend because of extended discussions about the failure of the government in Greece to come up with it’s latest debt repayment and EU officials are now talking quite openly of the plans that are being made in Brussels for Greece leaving the European Union. This news weighed heavily on European markets last week and collectively they suffered some of their largest losses for 2015  but overnight news from China may well reverse the sentiment as China’s Central Bank – the People’s Bank Of China – cut their Reserve Ratio Requirement (RRR) in an attempt at stimulus after increasingly worrying numbers emerging from the economy as a whole continue although this is not the first cut this year and so far nothing much has changed so many see this as a knee-jerk reaction to problems that are larger than the government is officially acknowledging.

In the U.S. a failure of Bloomberg terminals causing a drop in liquidity together with a drop of over 4% by American Express all contributed to a fall of 1.5% of the main Dow Jones 30 index on Friday but overnight Asian news of the Chinese Central Bank’s economic stimulus should cause a rebound but on the downside, the index may carry on downwards to the next support area at 17,600 (currently +90 at 17,915 this morning on the futures markets)

The crude oil market had a generally bearish session on Friday with the U.S. WTI Crude falling 50 cents to $56:04 after an announcement that OPEC overshot their self imposed production limits by over 800,000 barrels although this was the first negative day of the week as lower production and higher demand in the U.S. kept values bullish.

Market Close Friday 17th April 2015:   Dow Jones 30  -279.47 @ 17,826.30  S&P 500  -23.81 @ 2,081.18  NASDAQ  -67.03 @ 4,351.80  FTSE 100  -65.82 @ 6,994.63  UK AIM  +0.46 @ 749.68  DAX 30  -310.16 @ 11,668.70  CAC 40  -81.23 @ 5,143.26  IBEX   -252.30 @ 11,359.40   Nikkei 225 (Today)  -18.39 @ 19,634.49  Hang Seng (currently)  -608.16 @ 27,044.96

All times below are CET (UK Time +1hr)

10:10am    Was off for a quick cycle ride but I’ve just noticed a possible UTB trade developing on my UK FTSE 100 chart so I’ll hang on for a while and see what happens – nothing much else happening on my favourite charts as the week kicks off on the markets.

10:25am    I am now in the above mentioned trade – it’s a short position with a 16 pip stop loss. I have set  the profit target at 25 pips and am off now for my ride.

11:15am   Just back from my cycle ride and my FTSE 100 trade is still live, currently sitting at +9 pips.

12:25pm   I have now got into a ‘short’ position on my Gold chart using one of the trendFX patterns with a 23 pip stop loss. My FTSE trade is still running although just a few pips in profit at the moment.

13:25pm   The Gold price has hit a short term support level at $1197.0 so I’ve come out of my trade at a price just above that meaning a +48 pip profit. Still in the FTSE 100 position, it’s not really doing much at the moment so I’ll hang on until the U.S. open in an hour to see if things liven up slightly.

15:05pm   I’m now in a ‘long’ trendFX position on my German Dax 30 chart with a 20 pip stop loss – and still hanging on in there with the FTSE trade.

15:30pm   I have a few things to get sorted before I fly out tomorrow so I’m now out of my FTSE 100 trade, it’s has managed +20 pips but my Dax one is still advancing well so I have set a target at +35 pips.

16:10pm   Trade Update:  Just looked at my charts as I came through the kitchen and noticed my Dax trade has been closed off at +35 pips, so all in all I’ve managed +103 pips today, a fair start to the week.