07:30am   Just emailed my ‘Daily-Guidance’ information sheet off to subscribers and for the rest of the morning I shall be here in the study replying to emails and also doing some chart watching but first a cycle ride as it looks so sunny out there this morning.

Market Update:

The main topic of conversation on trading floors across Europe and the U.S. is the ongoing Greek debt problem. There is a growing realisation that Greece is now really struggling to come up with the funds to repay its creditors and over the past week it has become clear that Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is now acting with an air of bravado as his negotiating tactics are just not working against the IMF and ECB paymasters.  It is now looking likely that the country does not have enough money to pay its next debt repayment at the end of June and an exit from the Euro is once again looking like a racing certainty. The G7 meeting of leading economic nations have the Greek problem high on their agenda and the does appear to be general consensus of opinion that everyone should hold tight and not back down in the face of Greek demands for leniency.

On Friday we saw that U.S. employment numbers came in better than most traders expected with a gain of 280,000 jobs added in May against an estimation of 226,000 and this advance will fuel expectations of a Fed rate rise before the end of 2015. This sentiment drove the main S&P 500 index down by the end of Friday’s session and weigh heavily on trader’s action this morning as the European markets get going for a new week.

In the oil markets there was a confirmation by OPEC members that they are holding steady with their production of 30 million barrels per day which should have put pressure of values but to counter that U.S. oil production companies posted a decline on output so WTI Crude ended Friday’s session slightly up at $58:98 rising by just over one Dollar.

Trading Diary:

07:45am   It’s always risky getting into any trades first thing on a Monday morning as the markets get going after the weekend break so I am off for a cycle ride now – back in an hour or so.

11:10am   Nothing much to report from the markets, a lot of traders are waiting to see if anything concrete comes out of the G7 meeting today and also watching the opening of the U.S. trading session in a few hours.

15:45pm   Back from a late lunch at the Lorn Nelson and I can see a potential ‘short’ trade setting up on my Dax 30 chart.

16:20pm   In the Dax position, it’s a trendFX strategy-1 set-up with a 34 pip stop loss.

18:35pm   Off out soon and the price on my Dax chart is bouncing off the 11,000 ‘large-number’ level so I am now out of my trade with a +94 pip profit.