08:20am CET (07:20 UK time)   Last day of the trading week and I shall be around the house for most of the day so if I do find any trade opportunities I’ll report them here.

Earnings season is well underway in the U.S. so traders will be keenly watching the numbers to gauge the health of the economy over there and aluminium producer Alcoa were first out of the blocks yesterday with disappointing profit numbers but despite that, the Dow Jones index of the 30 leading companies finished 56 points higher at 17,958 and once again hit (and failed to go through) the recent resistance level at 17,990.  Interestingly, my DJ 30 daily chart shows the index is overbought at the moment so we may see moves down although the wider S&P 500 broke through it’s resistance at 2090 yesterday and after the overnight Asian session futures as sitting at 2094.9 at the moment. Over here in Europe Greece managed to pay their latest monthly loan repayment after a lot of argument but already worries are surfacing about May’s deadline as the general population continues to lose confidence in the banking sector and withdraws capital from the countries banks at a greater rate than any time for the last 6 months.

U.S. Crude oil had a varied session yesterday – the weekly petroleum status report from the US Energy Information Administration confirmed that crude stockpiles had increased at a greater rate for 14 years WTI Crude but then news that Iran wants to take a tougher stance on the current nuclear negotiations from President Rouhani meaning that increased crude exports will not hit the market yet countered traders pessimism  and as a result the closing price was largely unchanged on the day —  currently the price is sitting at $50:64 with UK Brent Crude at $56:50 after a poor Asian session.

Market Close Thursday 9th April 2015:   Dow Jones 30  +56.22 @ 17,958.73  S&P 500  +9.28 @ 2,091.18  NASDAQ  +27.99 @ 4,403.95  FTSE 100  +77.95 @ 7,015.36  UK AIM  +6.84 @ 732.36  DAX 30  +130.58 @ 12,166.44  CAC 40  +72.09 @ 5,208.95  IBEX   +79.10 @ 11,734.60   Nikkei 225 (Today)  -30.90 @ 19,907.63  Hang Seng (currently)  +93.35 @ 27,037.74

All times below are CET (UK time +1hr)

09:45am    Been out for a quick cycle ride but now I’m back I can report I am in a ‘long’ position on my Gold chart using my Magic-Line set-up – stop loss is 18 pips.

12:05am    Just come indoors and had a quick look at my charts and seen a good rise in the Gold price so I am now out of my position with a +73 pip profit.

14:50pm    Back from a relaxing (& large) lunch and the only excitement I can see on my chart is ‘short’ UTB trade setting up on the French CAC 40.  I am not a great fan of trades on this index as the daily movement is quite poor when compared to my favourites but it will serve as a good teaching exercise for students later.

15:05pm    The aforementioned position has triggered and I am now in the trade with a 9 pip stop loss.  There was almost the same pattern on the German Dax 30 (as is quite normal) but it was not a valid set-up so it had to be left alone.

16:40pm    Just come out of my CAC trade as the price has slowed quite considerably and the bearish momentum is not as strong now – I have managed +13 pips.

18:00pm     I find myself around the house at the moment so I shall switch on my S&P 500 chart to see if there are any ‘Trade With A Day Job’ opportunities in the next few hours before we are out for the evening.

18:25pm     I am now in a ‘long’ TWADJ position with a 15 pip stop loss.

19:30pm     ….and now I’m out of my TWADJ position – been stopped out at minus 15 pips !  We’re out shortly so I’m not going to look for any further trades and my total for the day on the market is +71 pips.