08:20am   I have a busy day at home today so not sure how much chart watch I will manage but any trades I do have will be detailed below in my Trading Diary.

Market Update:

After last week’s geo-political unrest and subsequent uneasiness in the markets which resulted in a near 60 point fall in the S&P-500 there does seem to be some optimism returning on trading floors in the past 12 hours. The overnight Asian session ended largely up after encouraging Japanese GDP figures trumped the disappointing Chinese Industrial output although the Nikkei 225 index did close 89 points lower after a fairly high volume trading session.  The European trading session looks to be opening well with most indices up and traders shrugging off last week’s tensions between the U.S. and North Korea as old news and this sentiment is also spilling over to U.S. index futures where the S&P-500 is up over 14 points since midnight.

With equity markets looking more optimistic we could see the rush to Gold slowing slightly, it closed the week on Friday at $1288.70 after hitting an intraday high of $1292.10 but is now trading slightly down at $1282.95. Watch for a minor support level at $1273.00 this week as the price continues to tumble.  Crude oil has fallen down to its 200-day moving average at $48.20 and as predicted on Friday has bounced up slightly so we could see a small rise this week but bear in mind there is a ceiling at $50.25 which could prove to be an insurmountable barrier.

Trading Diary:

11:20am   I have just entered a ‘short’ position on my Brent Crude Oil 15-min chart, it’s a Master-The-Trend Strategy-A pattern with a 15 pip stop loss.

11:55am    Now in my second trade of the morning – it’s another Master-The-Trend Strategy-A set-up but this time on my Gold 15-min chart. My stop loss is smaller this time at just 8 pips.

12:05pm   Just taken a quick 15 pip profit from the Gold position as there is a small amount of volatility entering the market but still in the Brent trade.

14:10pm   I have been out at lunch but back home now and things are getting busy – I have just got into a ‘long’ position on my S&P-500 30-min chart (Master-The-Trend Strategy-A) and my Brent Crude has been stopped out at -15 pips.  My stop loss on the S&P-500 trade is 25 pips, about average for the 30 minute timeframe.

16:05pm   I have really go to get on with some other jobs around the house so I have just closed off my S&P-500 position at +101 pips. The price has made good progress this afternoon but has started to retreat downwards slightly so I have come out of the trade before I lose more points.