07:55am   Relaxing day at home ahead for me so any trades I find will be reported below although we could experience quiet markets as we wait for the Fed’s interest rate announcement.

Market Update:

As mentioned above, in just over 11-hours time the U.S. Federal Reserve will be announcing their interest rate decision – it is currently at 0.50% and expectation is for a 0.25% rise with further small increases through 2017.  As usually occurs, this expected rise is largely priced into the market so if you look at the U.S. S&P-500 and the level it has reached in the past few weeks it would seem that traders are looking forward to the Fed eventually moving rates higher as their optimism regarding the U.S. economy grows.  Yesterday’s trading session saw the Dow Jones 30 index close at another record high at close to 19,800 after touching 19,955 in mid session and it is still holding above the 19,000 level this morning in futures trading – watch for a bearish reaction though as it hits the 20,000 level. There will also be trading opportunities on the S&P-500 index when the Dow touches this important milestone.

The overnight Asian trading session finished mixed as traders are also waiting for Janet Yellen’s decision later today and this sentiment has spilled over to the European open where most indices are slightly down. Crude oil markets are also experiencing a squeeze at the moment as U.S. crude oil inventories are expected to show a small rise in the stock situation this week, we will get confirmation at 16:30pm European time – WTI Crude closed last night at $52.44, down from the week’s high of $54.48.

Trading Diary:

08:40am   Unsurprisingly there is nothing much happening on my group of favourite charts so I am off for a cycle ride in the sunshine.

10:10am   Just got back and spotted a ‘short’ trade opportunity on my Brent Crude 1-hr chart – it’s a Master-The-Trend strategy-A pattern and I am now in the trade with a 21 pip stop loss.  As we have the U.S. Crude Oil Inventories later today this could be a fairly risky move but the stop loss is quite low so we will see how it develops.

11:30am     I am envisaging a fairly volatile few hours coming up in the Crude Oil market so I have come out of my position with a small +29 pip profit.

12:50pm     Traders lunch at The Lord Nelson apparently..

14:25pm     This is not a trade that I would suggest new traders contemplate as we are so close to the Crude Oil Inventories announcement but I have just got into a ‘short’ trade on the WTI Crude chart – more details soon.

14:40pm     The position I mentioned above is a Master-The-Trend Strategy-A pattern on the 15-min chart with a 20 pip stop loss and I do not expect it to last that long.

15:05pm     Out of above position before “the” announcement in 25-mins, it has given me +20 pips.

15:45pm     Just had a final look at my charts and there’s nothing to get excited about in the run-up to the Federal Reserve’s statement in a few hours so I am calling it a day and will be back here at my desk tomorrow morning for my last trading day of the week.