08:45am   Another quiet day at home planned catching up on emails and watching my screens from time to time for possible trading opportunities. Any positions I take will be detailed below.

Market Update:

Markets on the whole are treading water ahead of the U.S. interest rate decision later today after a 2-day FOMC meeting to decide on future policy. The general consensus is for the committee to keep rates on hold and this has already been priced into the markets so any deviation will cause some unwanted volatility but first we will have lower trading volumes as traders sit on their hands today watching closely for hints from people close to the Fed decision.

U.S. markets ended Tuesday’s session mainly up on positive earnings which are coming in better than commentators were expecting and the rising oil price is also helping with WTI Crude rising above the significant $47.00 level on hopes of declining stocks. Today sees the weekly U.S. crude oil inventory level announcement and expectations are for a drop of around 3 million barrels and trading volumes are already lower than normal ahead of the announcement as traders do not want to be caught on the wrong side of a trade. U.S. WTI Crude rose $2.08 yesterday to close at $48.52 but is slightly down this morning at $48.33 as investors adjust positions and get into cash before this afternoon’s numbers release.

Asian markets also had a positive overnight session on hopes that the U.S. Federal Reserve will keep rates on hold and this morning’s European trading session is starting in the same vein with rises across most major bourses.

Trading Diary:

09:35am   Just entered a ‘short’ position on my GOLD 15-min chart, it’s a Master-The-Trend strategy-A set-up with an 11 pip stop loss.

11:20am    Been out on an extended cycle ride and upon my return I have just noticed that my GOLD position has been stopped out at -11 pips.

15:00pm    There is quite low volume in most of the major markets I keep an eye on ahead of the Fed’s rate announcement later today so I am switching off my screens for the day, back here tomorrow morning at the usual time – no further trades to report.