08:05am   After a busy day outside yesterday I am looking forward to a relaxing time here in my home office catching up on emails and watching charts. Any trades I take will be detailed below in my Trading Diary.

Market Update:

U.S. equity markets experienced yet another record breaking session after the Federal Reserve released minutes from their last meeting that showed members were inching towards a rate rise in a few months, as they believe that the economy is now strong enough to withstand a small hike. The Dow Jones 30 index rose 40 points to close at a new high of 22,872.89 and the wider S&P index of top 500 U.S. companies closed 0.2% up at 2555.24 which subscribers of my Trading-Guidance service will have noted as a significant resistance area.

This optimism spilled over to the overnight Asian trading session early this morning where most bourses closed ahead with the Chinese Hang Seng index leading the charge upwards by finishing 110 points higher at 28,500 (+0.39%).  Today’s European session has started fairly flat however with lingering concerns over the Spanish situation and Catalonia even though there has been a stay of execution regarding independence talks, the Spanish IBEX-35 has opened sharply down after the large rise seen on Tuesday.

Crude oil values are holding steady after a large bullish move at the beginning of the week and U.S. WTI Crude is still above the significant $50 level although we could see some bearish activity today after the release of the weekly oil inventories numbers in the U.S.  The Daily WTI chart is suggesting a move down towards its 20-day moving average at $50:25 from it current level at $51:04.

Trading Diary:

11:05am   I have just returned from a cycle ride in the sunshine to see that a ‘long’ trade had been setting up on my 15-min FTSE-100 chart but the price has not advanced much in the last 30 minutes so I have managed to get in at an advantageous level giving me a relatively small 7 pip stop loss.  The pattern is a Master-The-Trend Strategy-B set-up.

12:15pm   The FTSE price has shot up quite well in the last 30 minutes and I am now out of my position with a +20 pip profit.

14:10pm   I am trying a quick trade on crude oil before the U.S. Oil Inventories number is released. I have just taken a ‘short’ position on my WTI Crude 15-min chart using the Master-The-Trend Strategy-A pattern and my stop loss is 16 pips.

15:05pm   My WTI position is doing ok but I have just brought my stop loss down to break-even to protect myself against any potential losses when price becomes more volatile as the weekly crude inventories number is released.

16:00pm  Now out of my WTI Crude position with a 25 pip profit giving me day’s total of +45 pips.  Charts off now and I maybe back here tomorrow morning, not quite sure yet as ‘Head Office’ has been muttering about alternative plans for the day…..