08:05am  After what seems like a few months away from trading (in reality just a few weeks) I am now back to a ‘normal’ daily timetable which includes some chart watching and catching up on emails and Skype calls. Any trades I take will be detailed below in my Trading Diary.

Market Update:

The markets today will be largely driven by the outcome of events in Singapore between President Trump and North Korean leading Kim Jon-un and Monday’s U.S. trading session was largely positive on hopes of a successful summit which has proven to be correct if preliminary reports are to be believed.  The Dow Jones finished yesterday’s session up 5.78 points at 25,322.31 9+0.02%) and in Tuesday’s futures market is up slightly at 25,354.40 and the S&P-500 is up a similiar amount.

The overnight Asian trading session was higher overall at the close with the Chinese Shanghai Composite up the highest of the major bourses at +0.89% as a successful U.S./North Korean summit came to a close. Surprisingly the South Korean Kospi index had a volatile session and fluctuated between losses and gains all day but finally closed marginally down by 0.05%.  Gold also had a choppy ride throughout Monday and eventually close marginally up by 72 cents at $1299.33 having failed to stay above the significant $1300 level and this morning it is down at $1298.11, slipping below the 20-day moving average once again where the seems to be solid resistance over the past three weeks.

Oil markets are up this morning in line with equities as optimism over the U.S./North Korean summit abounds, Brent Crude ended largely flat on Monday at $76.27 but is trading at $76.68 at the moment.  Trading volumes are lower than usual currently as traders await the outcome of an OPEC meeting in a few week’s time when production levels will once again be in the spotlight.

Trading Diary:

 10:45am   I have just taken a ‘short’ position on my German DAX-30 chart (15-min timeframe).  It’s a Master-The-Trend Strategy-B set-up with a 23 pip stop loss.

11:00am   Nothing much else occurring on my collection of favourite charts currently so I am off for a cycle ride for the next hour or so.

12:45pm  I have now entered another ‘short’ position on my 15-min DAX-30 chart, this time it’s a Master-The-Trend Strategy-A set-up and my stop loss is just 13 pips.  I hardly ever ‘double-up’ on a position but the new signal was confirming the earlier direction towards the 12,810 region so it confirmed my original idea of a bearish move.

13:25pm    Out of both positions with minimal profit before equities here in Europe start to react to the U.S. trading session start.  My first position has managed a +23 pip profit and the second one has come in at +27 pips. Late lunch time now, back home in an hour or so.

15:30pm   Back  home from lunch and a quick scan of my charts shows no current opportunities so I am switching my charts off for the day – back here tomorrow. Happy with my +50 pip profit.