08:00am    I am planning a quiet day at  home today so any trades I take will be detailed below in my Trading Diary.

Market Update:

Yesterday’s European trading session ended on a positive note, the UK FTSE-100 was the best performer in the area with a rise of 1.26% and the CAC-40 and DAX-30 were also up around 0/5%. Later in the day the U.S. markets were once again fairly upbeat as corporate earnings are continuing to come in ahead of analysts expectations, the S&P-500 closed +0.0% up at 2708.64 although the Dow Jones index was dragged down by IBM as the company’s shares dropped after a downbeat forward guidance statement was released despite an optimistic earnings and revenue announcement, the shares dropped 7.5% by the close.  The tech-centred Nasdaq index closed ahead on upbeat earnings with expectations for more good news towards the end of the week.

Traders in Asia last night were buoyed by a largely positive U.S. session and almost all the region’s indices closed ahead with Hong Kong’s Hang Send Index the best performer of the night, gaining 1.20% on the back of a surge in energy stocks due to the rise on oil prices on Wednesday.  This was instigated by a surprising fall in the weekly U.S. Crude Inventories number together with a report from Reuters News Agency that Saudi Arabia are looking at a $80 per barrel by the end of the year.

Gold is still looking fairly bullish despite a rise in equity markets, it closed up $1.80 last night at $1349.20 and is already up to $1353.80 this morning but may find some minor resistance at $1357.00 so watch for trading opportunities at that level.

Trading Diary:

08:10am    Off for a run in the sunshine, back to the screens in an hour.

10:55am    Just taken a ‘short’ position on my S&P-500 15-min chart, it’s a Master-The-Trend Strategy-A pattern with a 22 pip stop loss.

12:40pm     My S&P-500 position has just been stopped out at -22 pips.

13:15pm   I am now in a ‘short’ position on my FTSE-100 30-min chart, it’s a Master-The-Reversal UTB pattern.  The stop loss on this occasion is a whopping 9 pips.

14:30pm    The FTSE price is getting quite volatile so watching the chart carefully in case I have to close it off quickly.

15:45pm     Still in the FTSE position as I ended up going out for pub lunch and left the trade running – just got back and seen the trade is still going and just in profit.

16:10pm     The FTSE price is struggling to go lower at the moment despite the S&P-500 still falling so I have closed off my position at +14 pips, my total for day is – 8 pips. Screens off now and with weather set to continue fine tomorrow, today is my last trading session of the week, I will be back next Tuesday.