08:40am CET (07:40 UK)  ~  Late start today after arriving back here in Puerto Pollensa at midnight following flight delays. At home today relaxing so I should get some chart watching in at some stage.

U.S. markets were surprisingly busy yesterday despite the norm of low volumes ahead of a Fed announcement which is occurring late today at 7pm New York time.  It would seem that traders are readying themselves for a rise in equity markets even though Fed Chairman Janet Yellen is going to announce the end of Quantative Easing Programme that has propped up the world’s largest economy for the past few years. It should seem like bad news but as ever traders will find a way to reverse that around and the end of this stimulus for the markets will probably signal lower interest rates well into 2015 which is good news for the economy as a whole, so there’s your silver lining !  U.S. corporate earnings are also coming out better than expected together with better than expected consumer confidence numbers so markets are reaching for higher highs at the moment, the Dow Jones 30 ended above 17,000 for the first time in a few weeks and the broader S&P 500 index has regained around 80% of its recent fall.  Although Europe is still staring recession in the face, equity markets over here ended on a high yesterday with further gains looking likely as the markets open as traders are betting on the European Central Bank providing some extra stimulus to the economy on top of the already record low interest rates.

The Crude Oil market is continuing its bounce off the lows of a few days ago with U.S. WTI Crude gaining almost a dollar during yesterday’s session to finish at $81.60 but the is still downward pressure on prices which is partly due to weak demand but entering the equation now is the success of the U.S. fracking programme, something to look forward to in the UK soon.

You may notice that there are more indices listed below now, with the inclusion of Asian indices in Hong Kong and Japan – this is mainly due to more students from those regions joining us and learning to trade. The UK AIM market has also been added as I have some investments there.

Market Close Tuesday 28th Oct. 2014:   Dow Jones 30  +187.81 @ 17,005.75  S&P 500  +23.42 @ 1,985.05  NASDAQ  +60.01 @ 4,106.63  FTSE 100  +38.72 @ 6,402.17  UK AIM +5.56 @ 712.32  DAX 30  +165.58 @ 9,068.19  CAC 40  +15.93 @ 4,112.67  IBEX  +199.60 @ 10,394.80  Nikkei 225  +224.00 @ 15,553.91  Hang Seng  +301.13  @ 23,821.49

11:15am CET  ~  Been out for a bike ride to Formentor but back now so emails and chart watching for a while before lunch.

12:35pm  ~  Not much happening on my charts ahead of the Fed announcement later but there does look like a trendFX trade setting up on my Gold chart.

13:25pm  ~  I am now in a ‘short’ position on my Gold chart with an 18 pip stop loss.

14:20pm  ~  Gold has taken a big fall from my entry level and the selling momentum has calmed slightly so I am now out of my position with +41 pips.

17:55pm  ~  Just got back from a very late lunch – no trading for me this evening as there is the Fed’s QE announcement out soon making the markets unpredictable.

Daily Target  +20 pips

Pips Achieved  +41 pips