08:20am   Planning a day at home again with some chart watching now and then so any trades I find will be detailed below in my Trading Diary.  I am planning a day off tomorrow but will be back in front of my charts on Monday.

Market Update:

Main market news from yesterday came from the FOMC Press Conference last night (UK time) where the U.S. Federal Reserve announced that they were carrying forward their previous rate hike policy which sees once more rise in interest rates in late 2017 together with 3 more in 2018. They did however reduce the number of rises between now and 2019 by one which did cause a slight stir in the markets although the sudden fall in U.S. equity markets that occurred during the announcement reversed and buyers came back in strength. The Fed also announced they were reversing their bond purchasing programme which was initiated during the 2008 global financial crisis, this was also no real surprise for traders and was largely priced into the market already.

The overnight Asian trading session saw increased trading volumes after a slowdown ahead of the Fed’s press conference and most markets closed lower as the U.S. Dollar rose and this sentiment is spilling over to the European open this morning where most equity indices are slightly down on their close yesterday. Gold is continuing its slide south and although it did find some limited support at its 50-day moving average there does seem to be some increased bearish pressure this morning. It is currently sitting at $1299.85 down on last night’s close at $1300.80.

Crude oil rose 44 cents yesterday to close at $50:70 as more OPEC members join the resolution to try and cap output into the first quarter of 2018 although the price is falling this morning on U.S. inventory concerns and a potential lowering of demand caused by the rising U.S. Dollar as this lowers fuel consumption in non-Dollar denominated countries.

Trading Diary:

09:15am   There’s been nothing really of interest on my collection of favourite charts so far this morning so I am off for a cycle ride in the sunshine for an hour or so.

12:10pm    I have just taken a ‘short’ position on my Brent Crude Oil chart, it’s another Master-The-Trend Strategy-B pattern and the stop loss this time is 24 pips.

14:20pm    Just back from lunch out and noticed my Brent Crude trade has been stopped out at -24 pips.

15:10pm    I am now in a ‘short’ position on my Gold 15min chart, it’s another Master-The-Trend trade – this time a Strategy-A set-up.  My stop loss is 21 pips.

15:55pm    Taking a quick 21 pip profit from my Gold position so my score for the day stands at -3 pips.