07:55am  ~  Unusually I am at home here in Southwold on a Monday after a weekend of building work constructing an outside cooking/dining area and I have another two days of assisting a motley bunch of tradesmen. Although I enjoy watching charts it’s good to do some physical work now and then as a contrast.  I shall get down to some emailing later this morning plus I have 4 Skype calls with budding traders before lunchtime.

Looking at markets for last week, the Dow Jones managed to close at an all time high on Friday going up 32 pips to 16583. It was a real up and down last day of trading for the week but in the end the bulls emerged ahead. The S&P500 also finished slightly ahead although it is some way off recent highs and looking at the daily chart it would seem that it’s going to make another assault on the 1890 level where it has failed to move above since February despite numerous attempts. As the earnings season is winding down now, traders will have to look for other reasons to be in the market, so emphasis may concentrate back on the Ukraine issue, which brings us onto the Oil price. As has been the norm recently, energy markets are being heavily influenced by geopolitical tensions, mainly in Eastern Europe. Markets are trading slightly higher on fresh news that a referendum held in the East of Ukraine to join Russia appeared victorious. Previously, oil had weakened on dollar strength and the June contract is down 27 cents at $99.99 on Friday’s close.

13:10pm  ~  Just off for lunch – I have glanced at some charts at various points this morning and there’s nothing much happening so far.

17:00pm  ~  The builders have all disappeared to the Lord Nelson for the evening but I’m going to sit down and watch my S&P500 chart to see if any “Trade With A Day Job” set-ups pop up.

17:55pm  ~  I am now in a ‘long’ position on the S&P – the stop loss is 11 pips.

18:10pm  ~  That trade is now defunct, it’s been stopped out at minus 11 pips. I shall carry on watching the chart while I do some emailing.

19:45pm  ~  I have now switched off my chart and going out for the evening – here’s been no more trade opportunities

 Daily Target Reached ?  NO  (-11 pips)