08:50am  A nice relaxed start for me today after a very late night out and I will report any trades I have through the day here in the diary.

No trading or Market Update tomorrow as I am away all day on a Clay Pigeon Shoot, back here on Thursday.

Market Update:

China is leading the news again this morning where reports state that the People’s Bank of China intervened multiple times in the past 24 hours in the offshore Yuan market to prop up its currency. This news plus the large losses suffered on the Hang Seng and Japan’s Nikkei 225 index overnight looked to affect the European open this morning but after U.S. equities ended up slightly last night due to a late rally the FTSE100, Dax-30 and CAC-40 have started Tuesday’s trading session relatively positively without too much concern for Asian pessimism.

Crude oil prices are yet again under pressure with the U.S. WTI Crude price looking squarely at the $30 this morning, early it touched a low of $30:39 but has bounced up to $30:69 currently. The WTI and Brent Crude movement today will affect equity markets through the session more than it did last year so there should be an interesting day’s trading ahead. Gold’s recent rise is struggling slightly as safe haven investors buying spree is being countered by a slowing Asian demand for the metal, it has now dropped firmly below the $1100 level and the daily chart is looking slightly bearish this morning as it heads towards its 50-day moving average.

Trading Diary:

09:15am    Just got into a ‘long’ position on my German Dax-30 chart. It’s a trendFX strategy-3 set-up and my stop loss is a whopping 51 pips even though I am working off a 15 minute chart, this figure reflects the volatility in the markets at the moment.

10:40am   In general, equity markets are rebounding upwards this morning and I am now in another ‘long’ trade, this time it’s on my FTSE100 chart with a similiar trendFX strategy-3 set-up.  My stop loss on this trade is just 14 pips.

11:20am  A neighbour has just invited me out for a cycle ride so as both my trades are happily in profit I’ve closed them off. The Dax trade has come in at +131 pips and my FTSE100 position ended at +31 pips

12:55pm  Now in a ‘long’ position on my WTI Crude chart, it’s a trendFX strategy-1 set-up with a 23 pip stop loss.

14:20pm   The WTI Crude chart is starting to become slightly more volatile as the U.S. trading sessions gets underway and the price has retreated back from the high it reached 15 minutes ago. My score is +56 pips and I’m happy with my total of 218 pips today so no more glancing at my charts for the rest of the afternoon.