09:25am  Back home after a short break and not much planned for the day so I shall be watching my charts from time to time. Any trades I find will be reported here through the day.

Market Update:

Markets are generally bearish after a shaky start to the new month yesterday. Falling Crude Oil prices hit equities during Monday’s trading session and this sentiment carried on in the overnight Asian session. The Japanese Nikkei 225 index dropped 114 points to end at 17,750 earlier this morning as the initial excitement of negative interest rates wears off and the Hang Seng was similarly bearish, finishing nearly 150 points down.

European equities and U.S. futures are all negative this morning as well due to the drop in Brent Crude and WTI values, traders are waking up at last to the idea that fundamentals in the market have not really changed that much and any agreement to limit production between the larger oil producing nations is going to take time.  To add to bad news in the sector, BP have released earnings this morning which show it posted its biggest loss for 20 years — at minus $6.5 billion it is is greater than the 2010 figure after their Gulf Of Mexico oil spill. WTI Crude is currently sitting at $30:71 having touched the $35:00 level briefly a few sessions ago.

Gold is still benefiting from this general pessimism and rising steadily but has hit its 200 day moving average, so there has been some profit taking overnight during the Asian session. It is currently at $1125:10 having been as high as $1130:40 last night, its highest point since last November.

Trading Diary:

09:30am  Possible trendFX ‘short’ opportunity setting up on my FTSE100 chart.

09:45am   The FTSE price has gone down far enough to trigger the ‘short’ position so I am in the trade with a 22 pip stop loss.

1o:50am   The sun is out and I’m off for a cycle ride along the coastal path….

My FTSE trade is still trundling along in roughly the right direction but still only at +8 pips so leaving it running with original stop loss and 22 pip target.

12:35pm   Back now and FTSE-100 chart looking bearish again so I’ve taken the profit target off and moved the stop loss upto break-even as we go towards the (potentially volatile) U.S. trading session open. Could get a slightly higher profit if price drops in the next hour or so.

13:35pm   Going off now for a late lunch now so I’ve watching the FTSE100 chart in the last 5 minutes to close off my position with a reasonable profit – just done that and managed +32 pips

15:45pm   Was not really watching my charts but while having a Skype call with a new trader I glanced at the Gold chart and a UTB trade was setting up.  I am now in that position, my stop loss is 21 pips

17:55pm    Getting late for me to be sitting in front of charts — so just closed off the Gold trade at +37 pips.