08:30am   Back home after a long weekend away and today I am planning a quiet day catching up on emails and doing some chart watching from time to time. Any trades taken will be detailed below in my Trading Diary and there is one there already, a GOLD short position.

Market Update:

Monday’s European trading session ended positively after a good showing from U.S. equities and optimism that Germany seems to be nearer forming a new government after months of uncertainty.  The UK’s FTSE-100 index was the only loser of the day as confidence was hit after Theresa May’s cabinet reshuffle hit problems, it closed down 0.36%.  The U.S. session was another winner with the Nasdaq and S&P-500 indices closing at record highs once again with tech and utility stocks amongst the biggest risers.

This optimism was mainly carried over to the overnight Asian session where the main news was the Japanese Nikkei-225 index hit a 26-year high and North and South Korea held talks for the first time in two years. Virtually all markets in the region ended the session positively which is putting European traders in a good move this morning it would seem.  Gold is seeing some further declines after its long run-up from the $1236 December low as many traders have questioned its strength in the light of continued equity markets rising. It touched a high at $1325.90 last Thursday and since then has steadily fallen and is trading now at $1314.50 and we could see a move down as far as the 20-day moving average ($1306.50) in the next few days.

Oil markets seem to be taking a breather from the bullish momentum that has continued since June 2017 and Brent Crude seems to be falling away from the $68.25 high it reached last Thursday. Most of the move last week was due to traders buying crude futures on the hope of a tightening market in 2018 although some have lost their nerve this week, hence the falling price this morning. Brent Crude is sitting at $67.92 currently, on its way to the $67.00 level (probably).

Trading Diary:

Already in a ‘short’ Master-The-Trend position on my GOLD 15-min chart which I entered at 07:53am (UK time) , it’s a Strategy-B set-up with a 15 pip stop loss.

10:10am  I am now also in a ‘long’ position on the 15-min FTSE-100 chart, it’s another Master-The-Trend set-up but a Strategy-A pattern this time. My stop loss is a heady 6 pips.

10:25am    Just taken a quick +29 pip profit from my GOLD position and also taken a ‘short’ position on my 15-min Brent Crude chart. It is a Master-The-Trend Strategy-B pattern with a 15 pip stop loss.

12:10pm   I’ve got back indoors after a cycle ride and noticed that my Brent Crude trade has been stopped out at -15 pips.

14:05pm    My FTSE position has faired ‘ok’ during the U.S. trading session open but the price is still struggling at the moment to travel much higher so to protect a small profit I have closed the trade off at +10 pips.

14:20pm  I am now going for a run now so I am switching my charts off for the day, I will be back here at my desk early tomorrow morning.