09:20am    Nothing planned today except for catching up on emails and sending out my Trade-Alert sheets to subscribers plus some chart watching from time to time so any trades I have will be reported below.

Market Update:

Main market news yesterday was President-elect Trump’s first official news conference where investors and traders were hoping for some clues as to his policy going forward. There was some disappointment as he did not really hint at specific economic measures but he did take a swipe at certain sectors, mainly drug and defence companies where he believes too much profits are being made to the detriment of U.S. citizens and shares in those sectors did take an initial hit but overall equity markets did recover by the end of yesterday’s session and the main Dow Jones 30 index closed up 99 points at 19,954 so it once again getting close to the significant 20,000 level although during this morning’s futures market it has fallen back towards to the 19,900 level.

The overnight Asian market was mainly negative as traders there were expecting some upbeat comments on economic policy details in relation to world trade from Donald Trump which did not materialise and this created uncertainty which as previously mentioned, markets do not like. European markets are also mainly negative this morning and are waiting to see what happens later today once the U.S. markets open once again.

Oil was in the news as well yesterday with U.S. crude Oil Inventories showing a weekly rise of 4.1 million barrels to 483 million which ordinarily would send shock waves across trading floors but there is also evidence of high demand which dampened the shock – U.S. WTI Crude Oil prices closed up $1.56 at $52.35 and is largely similiar at the moment.

Trading Diary:

09:50am   I have just entered a ‘long’ position on my Brent Crude chart using the Strategy-A pattern from my Master-The-Trend system. It has a 15 pip stop loss, quite low for the 15-min timeframe.

11:35pm   The Brent Crude price has shot up fairly sharply in the past 30 minutes but has now levelled off after hitting a high around $55.90 and I am now out of my position with an acceptable +38 pips.

Off for a cycle ride, need some exercise…

12:55pm   Nothing else to report regarding trading opportunities, off to lunch now.

14:30pm   If the price on the German Dax-30 index falls below 11563 in the next 15min-30mins a ‘short’ Master-The-Trend position will be triggered.

14:50pm    The Dax price did fall past the required level so I am now in the position mentioned above. It’s a Strategy-B set-up with a larger than normal 42 pip stop loss which is a reflection of the volatility in that market this afternoon.

16:55pm   The Dax price has come down quite nicely and more than covered my stop loss value, plus I have done more than enough chart watching today so I have closed the position at +55 pips. My total for the day is +93 pips and full details and chart screenshots will be sent out in my daily “Nick’s Trades” email in the next hour or so.