08:25am  At home for most of the day and any trades I take will be detailed below in my Trading Diary.

Market Update:

Yesterday’s European markets closed mainly lower in ‘choppy’ trading after new Federal Reserve Chief Jerome Powell said that he expects conditions were right for at least three rate rises in the U.S. for 2018.  This sentiment crossed over the Atlantic and the main U.S. indices also closed in negative territory withe the Dow Jones 30 index finishing the last trading day of February down by 380 points (-1.50%) and the S&P index of the leading 500 companies was down by 1.11% with most of the day’s losses coming in the final few hours of trading. The tech-centred Nasdaq had its first overall monthly loss since July 2017.

Over in Asia, markets closed mixed with most down although China did buck the negative trend seen in the U.S with the Shanghai Composite and Hang Seng indices closing marginally in the black after initial losses caused by negative sentiment earlier in the day from Europe and America. Oil values are still under pressure from a strong U.S. Dollar although prices this morning are holding steady after two days of declines. WTI Crude lost $1.27 during Wednesday’s session to close at $61.44 after Crude Inventories revealed an unexpected rise.

Gold was treading water through most of yesterday with volumes lower than usual, it closed at $1317.20 losing just 50 cents on the day but is now heading towards the minor support level at $1308, down $9.20 since midnight.

Trading Diary:

11:00am   It’s been a quiet morning on my favourite charts but finally the GOLD chart has broken free and provided me with a trade set-up. It’s a ‘short’ Master-The-Trend Strategy-A pattern on the 15min timeframe and my stop loss is 14 pips.

12:55pm   Just taken a ‘short’ position on my UK FTSE-100 15min chart, it’s the same set-up as my earlier GOLD trade and my stop loss is 10 pips.  It’s a fairly speculative trade as the price will probably become volatile at 13:30pm as the U.S. markets start for the day.  My first trade of the day still doing ok but I will be  watching it carefully as we approach the U.S. open.

13:10pm  Out of my GOLD position at +56 pips, happy with that score.

13:40pm   Just seen my FTSE-100 trade has been stopped out !  I was on the phone for 10 minutes and did not pay attention to the charts at 13:30.  Score so far:  +46 pips so I will probably retire for the day, good result for the first trading day of the month.