07:25am   Just sent off my daily ‘Trading-Guidance‘ email to subscribers and I shall be off shortly on a bracing cycle ride before spending the morning here in my study catching up on emails and doing some chart watching.

Market Update:

All eyes are still on China and the wider Asian markets – there was another volatile session last night/early this morning although losses are not as sharp as they have been. The Chinese Central Bank cut their base rate yesterday for the fifth time in just under a year but the level is still nowhere near the U.S./European norm of close to zero – the People’s Bank Of China (PBOC) has set it at 4.6%, down 0.25% and it has also lowered the amount of money that Chinese Banks have to keep in reserve so this will have the effect of increasing money-flow and increase the amount they can lend to companies – this move should ultimately help investment and cashflow for private companies to earn passive income in the country. The Shanghai Composite index finsihed the session 1% down which is not as bad as previous sessions but over the last five days it’s fallen 23% and Government moves to prop the market up are still not having much effect.

Markets here in Europe recovered slightly yesterday after large moves down but sentiment this morning suggests more falls even though we had fairly healthy economic news out of the U.S. yesterday in the form of the monthly CB Consumer Confidence Survey – and there’s also Durable Goods Orders numbers out later today to watch out for if you’re in the market later today.

The Crude Oil market was slightly bullish yesterday with U.S. WTI Crude rising nearly $1:50 to finish the session at $39:65 on its way back to a previous support level at $40 although the daily chart is becoming overbought again, hinting at further falls. Today’s Crude Oil Inventories numbers will give further clues to near-term direction.

Trading Diary:

14:45pm   I’ve been out for most of the morning due to unfortunate circumstances but I am now back home for a few hours so I’ll get on with emails and a bit of chart watching.

15:20pm   Now in a ‘short’ position on my Dax 30 chart, it’s a UTB set-up and the stop loss is 69 pips. This is slightly higher than normal for the timeframe I’m using but is a reflection of the high volatility at the moment due to Chinese economic woes.

16:40pm    Happy with my current profit so I’m out of my Dax position with +112 pips — no more trading today