08:45am   This is my last trading day of the month as I am off for a 2nd honeymoon this afternoon so any trades I find this morning will be detailed in my Trading Diary below. I will be back trading on Tuesday 8th August.

Market Update:

U.S. equity markets have consolidated after some good gains on the back of encouraging tech company results this week, the rises in share values have prompted a lot of traders to start taking profits which has resulted in falls for some  indices. The S&P-500 closed down 0.10% at 2475.42 and futures have a current level showing at 2468.90 after hitting a low at 2459.50 but the Dow Jones 30 index did buck the trend slightly and came in at +85 points.

The overnight Asian trading session reflected this pessimism with equity markets across the board coming in with negative figures and the U.S. Dollar is strengthening against local currencies which has also had an impact. The European session is starting this morning in the same vein with the DAX-30, CAC-40 and FTSE-100 all lower at the moment.  Oil is continuing to show strength on news of declining U.S. crude stocks, WTI Crude closed yesterday at $49:12 (+44 cents) and is closing in on the significant $50 level once again.  Gold has had a fairly volatile week although it has gradually risen in value and has once hit the significant $1260 level but seems to be indicating that a fall from this resistance could be coming up today.

Trading Diary:

08:55am     Just entered a ‘long’ trade on my Brent Crude 15-min chart, it’s a Master-The-Trend Strategy-A set-up with a 20 pip stop loss.

10:20am   I have been called out on a bit of an emergency by a friend so I have brought my stop loss upto -10 pips and set the target at +20 pips. I will update you later when I’m back home.

13:30pm    Just arrived back home to find my position has been closed at its target of +20 pips.

Off soon on holiday so no further trading today.