07:50am  ~  It’s a lovely morning out there with the sun shining invitingly – I shall be out on a cycle ride soon and then back here in the study to do some emails and chart watching.

European equities had a subdued ending to yesterday’s trading session although a strong finish in the U.S. will give traders some optimism this morning for a bullish start. The Dow Jones 30 and S&P 500 ended up after strong corporate earnings, notably among those reporting was Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway whose class ‘B’ shares rose just over 3% to end at $129.70 after it was announced that Q2 earnings were up 41%. After last week’s bearish mood in the markets, it would seem that investors have renewed enthusiasm for buying and have pushed aside the troubles in Gaza, Libya and Ukraine.  This week we have a whole host of PMI numbers beginning with Spain and France, then Germany, UK and the U.S. so we will probably see the markets concentrating on those figures instead of geo-political problems.

WTI Crude Oil ended up 73 cents yesterday at $98.41 after Islamic militants are reported to have been gaining ground in Iraq, putting supplies at jeopardy and for technical traders there was also the $97 support level to keep the price up.  Gold traders were in a selling mood during yesterday’s session after a rally in equities meant a lack of demand for safe haven investments and the $1280 support from as far back as April still seems intact although if it does get breached this week, the next stop will be $1240.

Market Close Monday 4th Aug. 2014:  Dow Jones 30  -69.93 @ 16,493.37  S&P 500  -5.52 @ 1,925.15  FTSE 100  -1.66 @ 6,677.52  DAX 30  -55.94 @ 9,154.14  CAC 40  +14.44 @ 4,217.77

10:10am  ~  Just back from my cycle ride and now watching a handful of charts for any trade opportunities.  The only one showing any hope at the moment is my Gold chart so I will update here if there’s any development.

10:45am  ~  The Gold prices has moved down sufficiently to trigger a ‘short’ trade and I am in the market with a 15 pip stop loss. It is actually two separate set-ups, a UTB trade and also a ‘BERT’ pattern from the new  ’Master-The-Reversal‘ manual.

13:20pm  ~  My trade is still doing ok but the U.S. trading session is just about to start so I’ve brought my stop loss forward to +15 pips and I’ll wait and see what happens.

13:45pm  ~  The price is starting to get quite volatile so I have come out of the position and happy with a +42 pip profit.  Time for some lunch at the Lord Nelson…

16:50pm  ~  Just got back indoors and I’m going to watch my S&P500 chart to see if there are any “Trade With A Day Job” opportunities to take advantage of over the next few hours

18:35pm  ~  I’ve just had a nice ‘short’ signal on the chart, so I am now in a trade with a 19 pip stop loss.

18:45pm  ~  The S&P has suffered quite a dramatic price fall, not quite sure what’s triggered it – but I’m going to stay in a short while longer just to see where it goes next.

19:15pm  ~  We are going out for the evening in 5 minutes so I have closed off my trade with a +146 pip profit.

Daily Target  +20 pips

Pips Achieved  +188 pips !