08:55am  ~  A nice lazy start for me this morning after a very late night at a neighbour’s house. I have a couple of hours here in the study doing some general admin and emails before we are off for a 5-day break at a friend’s cottage in Rock (Cornwall) – some fellow traders will also be attending I believe.  I also have a Skype call in a minute with a 91-year-old guy who wants to finally learn to trade the markets !

The main news on the markets yesterday was that Gold had its biggest one day move in the last year and all my full-time trading friends (including myself) had good profits out of ‘long’ Gold positions – it finished up over $42 at $1320, getting close to the next resistance at $1330.  Although Wednesday’s FOMC statement regarding low interest rates did mean that many investors moved over to the yellow metal as it’s generally perceived that the Fed’s monetary policy will hurt the Dollar, this could not have caused this very large move so it was more likely to have been traders moving into safe-haven products due to the conflict in Iraq and the announcement that the U.S. are not putting any ‘boots on the ground’ any time soon.

Over to equities – the S&P500 had a slow start but really got going during the mid afternoon (U.S. time) and came in with another record high at 1959.48 with the Dow Jones following slightly behind. Here in Europe the German Dax 30 is again near its highs and the Spanish Ibex 35 shot up to a new record level, a totally different story to a year ago.  The FTSE100 in London formed a reversal candle on yesterday’s chart so keep an eye on ‘short’ opportunities if you trade this index, there will not be too many bulls around today as the there’s uncertainty going into the weekend regarding any fresh news in Iraq which could move the markets on Monday’s open.  There’s no real chance of lower oil prices at the moment, reports that Islamist militants in Iraq  attacked the country’s biggest oil refinery in the north, giving rise to concerns of serious disruption of supply. This sent the WTI Crude prices up 34 cents to finish at $106 a barrel and we also had news of the US oil inventories dropping last week which also provided support to the price. Brent Oil is now at a new yearly high, getting close to the record level of $117 reached last August – when will equity traders notice this ?

11:45am  ~  Just finishing off some emails then we’re off to Cornwall – the charts have been predictably quiet this morning after yesterday’s large moves so no trade opportunities for me.  I have news that a 91-year-old chap from Dublin is starting to learn to trade in the last hour, it’s never too late for anyone to acquire a new skill.