08:10am  I am at home this morning ahead of a 2-day trip to London so any trades I take will be detailed below in my Trading Diary.

Market Update:

Although U.S. equity markets closed last night at record highs yet again there are some cracks appearing in this long bull run as the banking sector posted its fourth consecutive daily fall. Recent Republican election losses in November has thrown doubt as to whether the Trump administration can push through their much anticipated tax cuts which was underwriting the bullish stock market run. The S&P-500 closed up 0.14% at 2594.38 last night but is shwoing some weakness this morning in futures trades, currently it is at 2590.15 with further falls looking likely.

The overnight Asian trading session did show signs of weakness in late trading although the Hang Seng was riding high on the back of Trump’s visit to China, the index closed up 243.37 points (+0.84) at 29,150.97 and the Japanese Nikkei 225 was initially doing as well but gave up all it’s gains during the last few hours of trading on profit taking and closed down 45 points at 22,868.72.  This morning’s European trading session has got off to a subdued start with the FTSE-100 and DAX-30 indices showing losses as traders digest the latest corporate earnings and also watch the resumption of Brexit talks today.

Gold had a positive trading session yesterday and rose to $1281.20 by the close after reversing mid-session at its 20-day moving average and it seems to be testing this level once again this morning, currently sitting at $1283.35.   Crude oil has enjoyed a good run this month but there now seems to be a reluctance for any further buying and the daily WTI Crude chart suggests some consolidation after hitting a high of $57:88 yesterday (also the 200-week moving average). Expect to see further falls to the $55.00 level in the coming weeks.

Trading Diary:

10:00am   Possible ‘short’ position on my S&P-500 chart.

10:10am    The price has dropped sufficiently on the S&P-500 index and I have just taken ‘short’ position, it’s a new development based on one of the main Master-The-Trend strategies which will be revealed to customers in the next few days. My stop loss is 20 pips.

11:05am   Out for quick cycle ride with neighbours and fellow traders.

12:30pm    Back home now and my trade is in profit by +46 pips so I am going to watch the price action carefully to see what moves develop before the U.S. trading session opens in an hour.

13:15pm   The price on my S&P-500 is struggling to go lower than 2578.00 so I have come out of my position ahead of the U.S. trading session open and Unemployment Claims announcement in 15 minutes.  My score is +110 pips which I am pleased about given that it’s the first time I’ve used the pattern.

I am off to London for a 2-day trip but will be back at work and in front of my charts next Tuesday.