08:05am   I shall be at home today working on this month’s Trading-Education eBook and I will also keep an eye on my collection of favourite charts as well. Any trades I find and place will be detailed below in my Trading Diary.

Market Update:

U.S. equity markets were in a bullish mood yesterday with the S&P-500 hitting an intraday high of 2873.29 which was higher than the previous record set at the beginning of this year, it settled finally at 2862.96 up by 5.91 points (+0.21%).  This positive outlook was attributed to an economy that’s apparently booming despite ongoing global trade disputes and there is also cautious optimism regarding corporate earnings this quarter.  The tech-centred Nasdaq Composite came within a whisker of its all time high during yesterday’s session, it rose 0.5% in the end to 7859.17 helped by substantial rises from Netflix and Micron.

The overnight Asian trading session was not as buoyant however and indices in the region closed mixed with both the Japanese Nikkei-225 index and the Hang Seng index finished up between +0.40% and +0.60% but the other major bourses closed in negative territory on ongoing concerns about Chinese/U.S. trade talks at the end of this week.  Oil markets are being boosted by lower U.S. inventories and today’s official numbers release will confirm the situation.  There is also the prospect of reduced output from Iran from November due to the upcoming renewed sanctions by Trump’s government.

Gold prices touched a one week high earlier this morning as the U.S. Dollar weakness affects the markets after President Trump criticized the Central Bank for raising interest rates  and traders await this month’s Federal Reserve meeting minutes. It closed up $5.48 last night at $1196.13 but is suffering from some profit taking this morning and is now at $1193.30.

Trading Diary:

08:25am     Nothing of note on my six favourite charts so I am starting my working day with a 20-mile cycle ride. Back in an hour and a half.

11:25am   In a ‘short’ GOLD position, more details soon.

12:10pm   Before I could post more details, my GOLD trade has been stopped out !  It was a Master-The-Reversals UTB pattern with a 15 pip stop loss.

14:00pm   Just back from lunch and I have entered a ‘long’ position on my Brent Crude 15-min chart. It’s going to be a fairly quick trade I feel as the Crude Oil Inventory numbers are coming out soon which usually results in some volatile moves either up or down.  My trade is a Master-The-Trend strategy-A set-up with a 23 pip stop loss.

15:10pm    Price on my Brent chart becoming slightly more volatile as we approach the 15:30pm announcement time so I am now out of my ‘long’ position with a +28 pip profit.

15:25pm  Switching charts off now – not sure whether we are out tomorrow so will confirm if I’m in front of my charts in the morning.  Signing off with a +13 pip daily profit and going to play golf but back at 6pm to send out my daily “Nick’s Trades” results email.