07:50am   Back in front of my chart this morning after an unexpected day off yesterday due to a strange 2-day sickness bug. I am planning to be at home for most of the day so any trades I find will be detailed below.

Market Update:

Monday’s European trading session closed mainly up with the Spanish IBEX-35 rising 2.45% by the close with banks contributing to most of the gains as the government is seen to be containing the Catalonian situation for the moment. Later in the day, the U.S. markets closed down by around 0.3% after news from the White House suggested that Trump’s much hailed corporate tax cuts are now gong to be phased in gradually over the next four years instead of coming in straight away at the beginning of 2018. Many traders have suggested that the recent rise in equity markets has been due to promise of lower taxes for the larger U.S. companies as this directly affects their profits/dividends.

The overnight Asian trading session ended mixed at best after Chinese PMI figures came in lower than expected at 51.6 against a predicted 52.2 and lower that last month’s figure of 52.4.  Oil markets are still looking positive although we are seeing some profit taking overnight, U.S. WTI Crude has reached a high of $54:43 yesterday before traders stepped in to book some gains. This level has not been reached since February and comes as OPEC and Russia have reiterated their desire to limit production well into 2018. Gold has bounced up off its 200-day moving average as money has moved out of equities, I have a target over the next few days of $1282.00 which coincides with its 20-day moving average, keep an eye on the charts as there will be some interesting trading opportunities soon.

 Trading Diary:

09:10am   Nothing to see on my collection of favourite charts so far this morning so I am off on a cycle ride now.

10:25am   Just entered a ‘short’ position on my 15-min GOLD chart, it’s a Master-The-Trend Strategy-B set-up and my stop loss is 13 pips.

11:10am    I have taken a quick profit from my GOLD position, the price has down to$1272.00 and I am out now with  +21 pip profit.  I am also watching a developing set-up on my S&P-500 chart.

11:25am    I am now in a second Master-The-Trend position, this time it’s a Strategy-A pattern on my S&P-500 15-min chart.

13:05pm     My S&P-500 position is still trundling along but has not yet reached any kind of decent profit so I will keep a close eye on it as we approach the start of today’s U.S. trading session.

14:00pm   My S&P-500 position has been stopped out a-14 pips amid the volatility that is usual around this time of the day.

15:45pm     Since I’ve been back from lunch there’s been no exciting opportunities on my favourite charts so I am switching them off now. Back at the usual time tomorrow morning.  Today has been the last trading day of October and I will do a round-up later today regarding my performance with my systems over the last 31 days.