08:15am  This will be my last day in front of my screens until next Wednesday as we are away on a short break tomorrow afternoon for 4-days. Any trades I have will be detailed below.

Market Update:

Main market news is the record high that U.S. equities reached during Wednesday’s trading session. The Dow Jones index of 30 leading companies closed above the 21,000 level and the rise was the best of 2017 – up 1.46% although the financial sector did even better at +2.8% with Goldman Sachs contributing the most to the bullish move. The wider S&P-500 closed up 1.37% (+32.32 points) at 2395.96 but did hit 2400.90 before retreating back slightly and this bullish sentiment is attributed mainly to a growing hope that Trump is going to follow through on most of his campaign promises regarding the economy and also that the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates this month which is a good signal that the Central Bank believes the U.S. economy is in good enough shape to withstand a rate hike.

Yesterday’s bullishness spilled over to last night’s Asian trading session and most bourses were up throughout the night although the two main Chinese indices did fall back just before the close.  After yesterday’s sterling performance in Europe, traders are more cautious this morning with only limited buying ahead of tomorrow’s U.S. jobs report.

Crude oil is continuing its slide from recent highs, U.S. WTI Crude is now well below the resistance at $55 and fell 39 cents yesterday to close at $53.64 and is still trading around that level as Europe begins trading.  Gold is moving down this morning after a fairly volatile session yesterday, it has found some support at its 20-day moving average this week and should revisit the $1255 level in the next few days.

Trading Diary:

10:10am    Just entered a ‘long’ position on my DAX-30 1-hr chart using a Master-The-Trend Strategy-A pattern and my stop loss is 20 pips. No other opportunities at the present time, the S&P-500 is just going sideways on small volume ahead of tomorrow’s Non Farm Payrolls report and Crude Oil has only just settled down to a definite trend (bearish).

10:15am   Off out in the strong winds for a cycle ride…

12:10pm   Been back home for 10 minutes and the only set-up I’ve noticed is a potential ‘short’ trade on my Brent Crude Oil chart. My DAX position is ok at the moment, it’s been languishing around +10 pips for a while now.

12:25pm   The Brent Crude price has fallen sufficiently and I am now in the above mentioned trade, it’s another Master-The-Trend Strategy-A pattern with a 13 pip stop loss.

13:45pm   I have just come out of my DAX-30 ‘long’ position, it has struggled for most of the morning to make any headway and it has just managed to get to 1:1 target – so my score for this trade is +21 pips.   My other trade is still doing ok (+28 pips currently) and coming down nicely so I will leave it for a while and see where it gets to.

14:25pm   Just close off my other position (Brent Crude Oil) —  it has managed +52 pips so my score for the day so far is +73 pips.  Off for a late lunch in a minute.

15:40pm   Back home now but calling it a day on my trading, happy with the +73 pip score.  Back in front of my charts next Wednesday.