08:25am  Going to be at home today catching up on emails after I had some issues with the software yesterday. Any trades I have will be reported here.

Market Update:

Chinese markets were back trading last night after a 3-day break and they ended largely up with the Shanghai Composite finishing ahead by +3.80% but the Hang Seng and Japanese Nikkei were down on the day. This followed on from a mixed U.S. session yesterday as the main S&P 500 suffered from selling pressure on the open but recovered slowly during the day to end ahead by +0.80% although S&P 500 and Dow futures are giving back those gains over the last few hours as traders adjust their positions ahead of the Fed minutes later this evening. Before then there is also the Bank Of England Monetary Policy Commitee’s rate decision which is widely believed to keep rates on hold at 0.50%.

The Crude Oil market suffered some falls yesterday after it was revealed that U.S. Crude Stockholdings had grown more than expected – traders were mainly agreed that stock at Cushing would have grown by just over 2 million barrels but the final count came in at +3.1 million. After a good bullish run over the last three days, profit taking is now putting pressure on values.

Trading Diary:

08:35am    Nothing much happening on my group of favourite charts so I am off for a quick cycle ride to clear the cobwebs…

09:35am    Got back 5 minutes ago and have just entered late into a ‘short’ position on my Brent Crude chart using one of my Any-Time set-ups. My stop loss is 18 pips on this occasion.

11:10am    Happy with my profit so I am now out of the above trade, it managed +53 pips.

12:10pm    I was not really looking for another trade but while answering a student’s question I just noticed another Any-Time trade setting up on the U.S. WTI Crude 30 minute chart, so I am now in that position with a 24 pip stop loss. It is also a Magic-Line trading system set-up

12:45pm   I am due out for lunch with a friend soon so I’ve just closed off this latest trade as it hit a 1:1 profit/loss ratio at 24 pips but I must say it did suffer a slight bit of slippage which is quite unusual with this platform, so my actual profit has come out at +23 pips.