08:05am  Relaxing day at home catching up on emails and doing some chart watching from time to time.

Market Update:

Some pessimism has crept into the market after Crude Oil Inventories revealed that oil stocks in the U.S. are once again at record highs, there was a rise of over 2 million barrels for the week and the stock situation now stands at 504.1 million barrels. The close correlation that has developed between oil and equities in the past few months meant that the major U.S. indices ended Thursday’s session down and this sentiment carried over to the overnight Asian session which has just come to an end for another week. Oil companies and those associated to the oil industry make up a fair proportion of various equity indices so any pressure on the oil price will adversely affect their operating profits and by association, their share price.

Equities across the world have not had a bad week overall, so there’s also a fair amount of consolidation and profit taking as we reach the end of the 3rd trading week of the month. The U.S. S&P index of 500 leading companies has posted its best weekly rise of 2016 gaining over 50 index points so far – futures are sitting at 1923.18 at the moment and the Dow Jones 50 has had a similiar percentage rise.  The buoyant equity market has not had such a negative effect on the value of Gold as you may imagine, it is now at roughly the same level as it was on Monday morning, currently sitting at $1223:80. Interestingly, the weekly chart has bounced up against its 200-day moving average and is now retreating back towards the $1200 minor suppoort level.

Trading Diary:

09:55am   Nothing much to see on my collection of favourite charts so I am off for a cycle ride in the sunshine shortly.

11:00am   Got into a ‘short’ position on my FTSE-100 chart, it’s a trendFX strategy-3 set-up and my stop loss is just 14 pips.

13:30pm    Going for lunch so brought stop loss upto break even which will protect me while the U.S. trading session opens.

15:05pm    Just got back and my trade was at +46 pips so it’s now closed off and I finished with the markets for another week. I’ve only traded today and Monday this week but I have managed a total of +78 pips and no losses. I will send out a chart screenshot to customers in a short while.