08:00am   Another relaxing day here at home, catching up on emails and doing some chart watching from time to time. Any trades I have will be detailed below.

Market Update:

Main news in the markets at the moment is the record highs reached by U.S. equities – the S&P-500 index closed up last night at 2202.94 a gain of 0.22% and the narrower Dow Jones index of 30 leading companies faired slightly better at +0.35%. This optimism failed to ignite the overnight Asian trading session with most markets closing flat except for the Australian ASX-200 which ended the day at +71 points (1.31%) with financial shares leading the bullish momentum.

Today’s European session has started mixed with the London FTSE-100 up in the first few minutes of trading but German and French indices still in negative territory. Oil prices have calmed down slightly after some initial optimism over OPEC production cuts which traders now judge to be less likely – previous attempts have largely ended in disappointment so expectations are being reigned in at the moment. The WTI Crude daily chart has reached a monthly high at $49:17 but now looks as though it could stage a bearish price reversal over the next few days – today’s Crude Oil Inventories number will no doubt assist volatility.

The Gold chart is still looking fairly bearish with further down moves on the cards for the daily timeframe although there does seem to be a support area around the $1200 level and this morning the price is not too far away – currently $1211.30.

Trading Diary:

09:55am   I am now in a ‘short’ position on my German DAX-30 chart, it’s a trendFX strategy-3 pattern on the 15-min timeframe – more details soon, I am in the middle of a Skype call.

10:15am   My DAX trade has a stop loss of 53 pips which is higher than normal for a 15-min chart but it does reflect the volatility in most of the European markets this morning.  I’ve just set a target of +53 pips as I am off for a 10-mile cycle ride now.

11:40am  Just back home and seen that my DAX-30 position has reached its target of 53 pips  -  I will take screenshot in a minute to show the trade details to subscribers later. While I was out there has also been a successful (short) UTB trade on the FTSE-100 chart, quite a few customers have done well with it judging by emails received in the last 5 minutes.

12:20pm   Nothing else to see on my collection of charts at the moment so I am off for an early lunch.

13:25pm   The price on the FTSE-100 chart has just fallen sufficiently to trigger a trendFX strategy-3 trade so I am now in a ‘short’ position with a more acceptable 15 pip stop loss.

15:20pm   The FTSE-100 price has had a good run down as the U.S. trading session got going but it has hit a low at 6775 and bounced up so I am now out of my position at 6798 giving me a +29 pip profit.

Happy with my score for the day so I am switching off my screens now and will be back tomorrow morning.