07:30am    Just sent off my daily ‘Trading-Guidance’ email and for most of the day I am here at home catching up on emails and also doing some chart watching from time to time. Any trades I have will be posted here. First I am off for a cycle ride under very grey skies for a couple of hours.

Market Update:

With the Japanese markets closed today, European indices will take their lead from a lacklustre Chinese session where the Hang Seng index ended down just over 1% following on from a negative finish on Friday in the U.S.  The Dow Jones and S&P 500 indices ended the week negatively after a fairly optimistic start  but the Fed’s decision to keep their interest rate on hold gave a message of no-confidence in the world economy as a whole and we are now seeing a definite bias to the downside so this coming week will confirm a trend one way or the other. A bearish reversal candle on the weekly S&P 500 could give a hint as to the way the markets are heading for the next two or three weeks and European markets will also take their lead today on reaction to the Greek election result over the weekend where the ant-austerity Syriza was given a second mandate to govern after they negotiated a very unpopular economic rescue in the summer.

Crude Oil markets have been buoyed for the beginning of the new week on news that production in the U.S. has slowed after it was announced that $1.5 trillion worth of investment in new fracking sites are uneconomic at a price of under $50 a barrel. While American producers may hope that a price rise will now ensue so that production can eventually rise, OPEC countries and particularly Saudi Arabia will simply up their own production to ensure prices stay at  a low enough level to keep the U.S. out of the global picture.

Trading Diary:

10:05am   Just got back here after an extended ride out on the beach path — and nothing much on my favourite charts so far. I’ll have another look in an hour or so.

11:00am   Possible ‘short’ trade on my S&P 500 chart – there’s a trendFX pattern setting up at the moment.

11:15am   I am now in that ‘short’ position with a 35 pip stop loss.

12:10pm   The price on my S&P 500 chart has risen past my stop level so I am now out of the trade with a 35 pip loss.

12:25pm    Now in another ‘short’ trade, this time on my Gold chart using the same trendFX strategy as earlier. My stop loss is 16 pips.

12:45pm   The Gold price is becoming slightly volatile and we are approaching the start of the U.S. trading session quite soon so I am now out of the trade with +55 pip profit.

 13:10pm    Markets will become unpredictable now for a while as a new week of trading starts in the U.S. so I am off for lunch at the Lord Nelson

14:15pm   No more trading for me today, I am off for the rest of the afternoon to help a friend who is restoring an old Bentley.