08:30am  Quiet morning planned here at home catching up on emails and doing some chart watching ahead of a planned trip to London after lunchtime.

Market Update:

At the start of a new trading week we are seeing equity markets looking surprisingly optimistic for two main reasons – there was no North Korean missile tests this weekend as many had predicted and although the Hurricane Irma has wreaked considerable damage across parts of Florida it is widely accepted that the impact has not been as bad as expected and as a result U.S. equity futures are on the rise this morning.

The overnight Asian market has also been fairly upbeat also as a result of no action on the Korean peninsula in the past few days, the South Korean Kospi Index rose 0.66% and the Japanese Nikkei 225 rallied 1.415 (+271 points) by the close as traders look for more risky investments. This attitude is going to have an effect of the Japanese Yen and Gold as they are considered havens when risk factors loom large, the USD/JPY has risen this morning on this sentiment and Gold has gapped down from Friday’s close at $1346:30 and is now trading at $1336.95.  There is a small support area for Gold around $1332 so do not expect it to fall below this level this week but watch out for trading opportunities around that point in the next few days.

Crude oil values fell sharply on Friday over concerns that Hurricane Irma is going to upset refining capacity resulting in a build up of crude stocks in the coming weeks, it fell over 3% into the close on Friday but has gained back some of the losses this morning as the Saudi Oil Minister has met with his opposite number from Venezuela and Kazakhstan  over the weekend to discuss an extension to the previously agreed production cuts. U.S WTI Crude is currently siting at $47:63 having fallen from Friday’s high of $49:23.

Trading Diary:

11:55am   It’s been a quiet morning with regard to my collection of favourite charts but I have just entered a ‘short’ position on my Gold 15-min chart. It’s a UTB Price-Reversal pattern and my stop loss is just 12 pips.

12:40pm    I have just come out of the Gold trade as the price has just hit a small support level around the $1334.20 and retreated back upwards and I am also away soon as well so I wanted to close the position before I left. I have managed a profit of 24 pips and I will be back here tomorrow morning.