07:55am   Planning a quiet day at home today catching up on emails and Skype calls plus some chart watching form time to time. Any trades I take will be detailed below in my Trading Diary

Market Update:

U.S. markets hit further record highs yesterday with the Dow Jones ending up by 140 points as technology stocks surged, the Tech-centred Nasdaq closed up 1.65% as traders started buying the dip after they fell out of favour last week.  This optimism did not quite follow on overnight during today’s Asian trading session where stocks closed mixed at best as investors await a decision on including Chinese A shares in the MSCI Emerging Markets Index, this will be the fourth attempt at inclusion after failure for the first three times.  The falling Gold price also dented investor confidence although the price has steadied slightly at the 200-day moving average after nine consecutive daily falls (I will send over a chart soon illustrating this occurrence)

Oil values are sitting at 7-month lows at the moment as OPEC try in vain to prop the price up against the strong will of U.S. Producers who readily increase their output as soon as they see a small decline in Middle East drilling. WTI Crude closed at $44:10 last night which is a level we’ve not seen since the 14th November last year although there has been a small rise this morning as bargain hunters emerge, the price could go as high as $44.70 today before more declines.

European markets are edging higher this morning after the German DAX-30 closed at a record high yesterday although the London FTSE-100 is slightly muted as traders await speeches by Chancellor Hammond and Bank of England Governor Carney in the next hour or so.

Trading Diary:

10:25am   Just entered a ‘short’ position on my WTI Crude Oil 15-min chart, it’s a UTB price-reversal pattern and the stop loss is 12 pips. Also waiting to see if another UTB triggers on my FTSE-100 chart.

10:40am   Now in the above-mentioned FTSE-100 trade, stop loss is a very reasonable 8 pips.

11:25am   Both of my positions are in profit (one more than the other) plus I have just been invited out on a cycle ride so I have closed my trades off a few minutes ago. The scores are: FTSE-100 +11 pips  WTI Crude +92 pips

13:15pm   Just entered a ‘short’ position on my DAX-30 15-min chart, it’s a Master-The-Trend Strategy-B set-up and the stop loss is 19 pips.

15:05pm   The Dax price has come down quite dramatically in the past hour or so demonstrating just how well my strategy-B pattern works but the sunny weather is beckoning me towards the garden so I closing off my screens and retiring from the markets for the day. This last trade has ended at +36 pips giving me a day’s total of +139 pips and if this temperate weather continues I am sorely tempted to spend the rest of the week outdoors away from my screens but I will update the situation tomorrow morning at 8am.