07:55am   Back home after a short break away so will be watching my charts now and then today, any trades I have will be reported below.

Market Update:

U.S. equity markets ended yesterday’s session on a bearish note with nothing to excite buyers and the earnings season just around the corner. The S&P-500 finished down 6 points last night at 2042.01 and is now below the 2015 close of 2058, there was a small resistance level last December at 2080 and the index touched that point during yesterday’s session and reversed back so we may see further falls this month even though the price of oil has stabilised and is edging up.

The overnight Asian session was quite ‘choppy’ with most indices ending slightly down on continued worries over the Chinese/Japanese economy although the negative sentiment does not seem to have spilled over to the European session so far, the German Dax-30 is currently slightly up at 9683 although the 20-day moving average does seem to be providing some resistance.

Crude oil is continuing to rise towards its near-term resistance level at $42:00 where the 200-day moving average is also sitting, the daily chart is now firmly established in a bull trend even though there still seems to be no concrete agreement from OPEC members regarding limiting production.

Trading Diary:

08:35am   My Brent Crude chart seems as though it may provide a bullish trading opportunity if the price reverses soon and continues upwards. There could be a similiar trade on the Gold chart as well but that one is not as advanced.

08:55am   The Brent price has risen sufficiently to trigger a trade so I am now in a ‘long’ trendFX position. It’s a strategy-3 set-up and my stop loss is 28 pips. Gold is rising as well so that trade may trigger soon as well.

09:15am   I am now in the Gold trade as well, it is also a ‘long’  trendFX strategy-3 set-up and there’s a 27 pip stop loss attached to the position.

10:15am   The Gold price rose quite nicely but suddenly reversed a short while ago so I have closed the position off at break even rather than have a winning trade turn into a loss – it did hit the first target of+27 pip at one stage but went no higher and I was out in the garden so did not close the trade off at that stage.

11:00am   The strength of the Brent Crude price has weakened as well, so I am now out of that position also — I’ve closed it off at a 1:1 profit ratio before it goes any lower (+28 pips). I’m going to take this opportunity to have a quick cycle ride to stretch my legs.

15:10pm   Just back from lunch but too nice to sitting indoors, which means no more trading for the day – back in front of my charts tomorrow.