07:35am    I am planning a nice quiet day at home catching up on emails and doing some chart watching so any trades I do have will be detailed below.

Market Update:

Main market news so far this week is the fact that U.S. stocks have hit another record high on hopes for President Trump’s upcoming tax proposals which could see savings for most sectors although optimism could be tempered slightly as Fed chief Janet Yellen is testifying in front of the Senate Banking Committee tonight – her comments will be keenly watched for clues regarding Federal Reserve interest rate policy over the next few months.

All three major U.S. indices closed at new highs with the main Dow Jones index of 30 biggest companies coming in 143 points higher (+0.70%) and the S&P-500 slightly behind at +0.50%. The Russell 200 and Nasdaq also managed record closes but we could encounter  some consolidation (profit-taking) during today’s session.  The overnight Asian trading session was not as optimistic with most stock indices closing in negative territory with only the Shanghai Composite ending higher (+0.05%)   Europe is seen as more bullish however and is opening slightly up in the last half hour.

Crude oil values are still trading in a sideways channel although WTI Crude and Brent Crude both experienced a negative session yesterday on worries over increasing U.S. oil production which is in contrast to OPEC’s resolution to cut output to underpin the price. U.S. WTI Crude fell 93 cents during Monday’s trading session to close at $52.85 although it is trading slightly higher at $53.02 this morning.

Trading Diary:

08:45am    Just been scanning through my collection of favourite charts and the only slight piece of excitement is the price action on my Brent Crude chart  -  it is showing signs of a ‘long’ Master-The-Trend trade set-up on the 15-min chart.   More news soon…

09:10am    Now in the aforementioned Brent position, it’s a Strategy-B pattern and my stop loss is 17 pips.  Customers who have my Pro-EXPERT manual that works alongside the main Master-The-Trend system will know that this is not a ‘perfect’ set-up so I will probably not stay in the trade too long.

09:25am    The Brent price has risen quite sharply as expected but is now showing signs of retreating back down so I am now out of my position with a +18 pip profit.

09:40am    It’s cold but extremely sunny outside so time for a cycle ride…

11:55am   Been back a short while and not seen anything on my charts so far.  Off out to lunch in half an hour so no more to report until this afternoon.

15:30pm   Following Fed Chairman Janet Yellen’s testimony this afternoon, some markets have become quite volatile and others are still going sideways but my collection of charts are not displaying any obvious trading patterns or set-ups so I am switching them off now until the morning.