08:30am   In and out of the house all day but any trades I do have will be reported below.

Market Update: Main news affecting the markets over the past 12-hrs was the U.S. Federal Reserve’s interest rate decision last night – they have raised the minimum lending rate by 0.25% to 0.75% and this is only the second rise in the last ten years. Probably of more importance was Janet Yellen’s forward guidance for next year and she is estimating another three rises for 2017 and on the back of this news, bond yields and the Dollar rose but equities took a hit although all the signs are for a partial recovery during today’s trading session.

Crude oil markets also had a volatile session after the weekly U.S. stock report showed a rise in levels ahead of the much hoped for production cut across most of the world. WTI Crude closed the day at $51.04 down by 3.7% although we have seen a slight rise this morning as bargain hunters come in.  Gold has also suffered as yields climb for other investments, it ended Wednesday’s session at $1142.90, losing $14.91 during the day and it is further down this morning at $1138.26.

There was no real enthusiasm for buying during the overnight Asian market and most indices ended in negative territory. The U.S. rate hike was largely priced into the market but the surprise was the amount of expected rises that are being predicted by the Fed for next year and this was the dampening effect across the bourses.

Trading Diary:

09:50am   Just entered a ‘short’ position on my Gold 15min chart, it’s a Master-The-Trend strategy-A pattern with a 12 pip stop loss. There is also a possibility of a trade on the oil charts in a moment if the price rises a few more pips.

10:00am    I am also now in a ‘long’ position on my WTI Crude Oil chart using a Master-The-Trend strategy-B pattern and a 21 pip stop loss.

10:15am   Trades looking ok, I will leave them to run without a target for the moment while I go off on a cycle ride with some fellow traders.

11:20am   Just got back indoors and seen the Gold price has ‘collapsed’ putting my ‘short’ position at +96 pips, so I have just closed it.  The WTI Crude trade is languishing around break even so I will leave that for a while.

12:05pm   Just noticed that my WTI Crude trade has been stopped out at -21 pips.

13:35pm   Out for late lunch

18:25pm    No more trades to report, played golf this afternoon.