08:10am  ~  We did not get back here until 11pm last night so there was no chart watching again for me yesterday – and later this morning we’re off horse-riding on Bodmin Moor and then the beach at Trevone Bay but first a quick cycle ride and some emailing.

The markets yesterday made up for losses on Monday and finished in positive territory although I can see that the main U.S. indices failed to significantly climb above recent highs, the S&P 500 touched 1986.70 before sellers came on the scene and drove the price down again after a bad reaction to latest earnings from Apple and Microsoft – is this level now unsustainable ?  Meanwhile, over here in Europe where the EU failed to agree on any concrete action towards the Russia regarding the downed Malaysian Airlines plane at yesterday’s meeting the German Dax 30 has been hovering around the 9730 resistance level now for a few sessions, if it does break clear there should be some good trading opportunities up towards 9870.  Not much happening today on the economic announcement front, there’s the Bank Of England interest rate level at 9:30am but no real surprise as to where that’s going to stay although there is reports of growing dissent among members of the Monetary Policy Committee as to the timing of an increase and then the Governor is speaking at lunchtime where no doubt he will give London traders some more of his forward guidance advice. For those Oil traders among you,  there is the weekly WTI Crude Inventories number from Cushing Oklahoma at 15:30pm UK time – last week’s number came in a lot lower than expectations and it is rumoured that some of that has been made up and levels are returning to ‘normal’.

Gold had a fairly neutral session yesterday with low volume trading during the start of the European session and then a surge as soon as the U.S. session got going, although a marked reluctance for buyers to remain in command saw prolonged profit taking take hold into the evening. The yellow metal does seem to be starting another bearish phase with some oversold readings on oscillators on the weekly chart, so watch out for trade opportunities down towards the $1240 level.

Market Close Tuesday 22nd July 2014:  Dow Jones 30  +68.81 @ 17,113.54  S&P 500  +9.90 @ 1,983.53  FTSE 100  +66.90 @ 6,795.34  DAX 30  +122.28  @ 9734.33

08:05am  ~  Just off for a cycle ride along the Camel Estuary to Wadebridge and back and then I’ll sit down to do some emailing – nothing planned for a trip out today yet.

As you can see from the ‘Market Close’ figures below (a sea of red) the markets had a generally bearish day yesterday with events in Ukraine weighing heavily on trader’s minds, although Asian markets have picked up slightly earlier today so we may see some optimism returning to equities. It would seem that Pro-Russian rebels are co-operating at last in a small way with crash investigators so tensions are abating slightly although focus is now turning to the EU Foreign Ministers meeting today where do doubt talk of economic sanctions for Russia will be top of the agenda and give some direction for European equities this morning. Although U.S. indices seem to be in a generally bullish mood after bouncing off support levels late last week, the German Dax 30 looks as though it is going to test the 9600 level once again today or tomorrow so watch out for ‘short’ trade opportunities that are heading down towards that area. The S&P 500 experienced a sell-off as yesterday’s session opened but interestingly traders then started buying around 1965 which has been a previous support a few times last week – watch out for ‘long’ opportunities here again today if there are suitable triggers.

With the troubles in Gaza continuing plus the initial equity sell-off in Europe there was an inevitable move over to Gold yesterday and the price surged ahead in early trading although profit taking later in the day largely cancelled out any gains. The price ended up just over $1 at $1310.30.  Crude oil stocks at Cushing are still below normal levels and together with strong demand from refineries held the WTI Crude price up, it finished the day at $102.83, up $1.01.

Market Close Monday 21st July 2014:   Dow Jones 30  -48.45 @ 17,051.73  S&P 500  -4.59 @ 1,973.63  FTSE 100  -21.01 @ 6,728.44  DAX 30  -107.97  @ 9612.05

08:10am  ~  Another glorious day in Cornwall and the start of my third week of the holiday down here – not quite sure what’s on the agenda today but I am doing an hour or so of emails now plus a quick glance at some charts to see how they faired over the last week.

Following on from my comments here on Friday, I can see that the two main U.S. indices did indeed bounce off their respective support lines and made a nice recovery for the end of the week although they did not quite get back to the record highs of previous sessions. Traders seemed to shrug off the political problems in Ukraine and the Middle East and instead concentrated on upbeat corporate earnings where most of the companies reporting recently have come in with numbers above expectation – and this helped the Dow Jones 30 finish above 17K again, ending Friday’s session up 138 points at 17,098 and the wider S&P 500 index gained 20 points, a higher percentage figure than its sister index, finishing the week at 1978. Europe had a more mixed session on Friday with gains in London and Paris but Madrid and Frankfurt posted negative numbers – we are more susceptible to perceived fall-out from further sanctions on Russia due to the downed Malaysian Airlines plane so European markets may rise and fall in tandem with news reports from the area.

With a renewed interest for equities on Friday, Gold suffered slightly as traders thoughts turned to the prospect of an early interest rate increase due to heightened market optimism – it finished the week at $1310.30, down just over $8 on the day.  U.S. WTI Crude finished the week slightly higher, mainly due to falling stocks at Cushing although Friday’s trading saw a drop of £1.06 after U.S. equities rebounded.

Market Close Friday 18th July 2014:  Dow Jones 30  +123.37 @ 17,010.18  S&P 500  +20.10   @ 1,978.22  FTSE 100  +11.13 @ 6,749.45

22:55pm  ~  I did manage to have a quick ‘evening’ trade with my “Trade With A Day Job” strategy earlier on, it was a ‘long’ position that kicked off just after 6pm and ended with a +40 pip profit when I came out at 7 o’clock

11:15am  ~  Still no time for chart watching as the holiday continues with no rest in sight although thunder storms down here last night has subdued outdoor activities slightly.

Just turned on my charts quickly 5 minutes ago to see what the markets are doing at the moment and I can see that the U.S. indices suffered a bit of a drop yesterday, no doubt on the worries of the Malaysian airliner shot down over Ukraine and news of the Israeli invasion of Gaza  - as you’ve do doubt noticed in the past, markets do not like geo-political turmoil or conflict, but on the upside both the Dow Jones 30 and S&P500 have come to a rest around historical moving average support and rebounded from there this morning, so we may see a resumption of the bullish trend up towards the highs of earlier this week.  Looking at the wider picture however, there does seem to be some marked reluctance for buyers to keep up their momentum when values reach near-term highs, there does seem to be quite a strong resistance level around 1985 on the S&P500 although the Dow Jones index is having better luck after breaking through the 17,00 barrier a month ago. European markets are clearly being held back by worries regarding the Eurozone economy and are well off there recent highs in June and early July.

As you would expect, amid all this global unrest Gold had a good day yesterday – advancing over $20 to reach $1318.9 last night as renewed demand for safe-haven investments rose although I can see there has been some profit-taking this morning.

07:25am  ~  It’s been a busy few days down here doing sightseeing at Land’s End and the Scilly Isles so no market update yesterday and no chance for chart watching yet this week.

China – the world’s second largest economy –  has announced favourable GDP numbers which should buoy the markets today after a largely indifferent day yesterday. The Dow Jones 30 just managed to finish in positive territory after an initial, dramatic fall on the open, mainly due to Janet Yellen, the FED’s chairman, hinting that improving employment numbers may well force her to increase interest rates earlier than the market is expecting. As you can imagine, this also sent currency traders into a dollar buying frenzy resulting the the EUR/USD forex pair dropping 50 pips on the day, ending at 1.3569. The other main U.S. index, the S&P500, finished in the red as it failed to recover sufficiently from the same opening session drop that befell the DJ30.  The London FTSE 100 index is expected to have a subdued open after a 0.5% drop yesterday ahead of UK employment numbers at 9:30am GMT, although there is not expected to be much change on last month’s figures of 6.6% – general consensus seems to be a slight improvement to 6.5%.

Gold has suffered for the past few sessions, Monday’s drop in price was caused mainly by a rush into equities and a relaxing over fears of Portugal’s banking problems and yesterday there was the aforementioned move into U.S. dollars leaving the yellow metal over $45 down since Monday morning’s open – it is now below the significant $1300 support level.  WTI Crude Oil values has also taken a tumble this week and are now hovering around the important $100 level after news of high U.S. stocks coupled with a perceived easing of the political tensions in Libya and Iraq caused a drop in price, closing at $100.19 last night.

Market Close Monday 15th July 2014:  Dow Jones 30  +5.26 @ 17,060.68  S&P 500  -3.82   @ 1,973.28  FTSE 100  -35.69 @ 6,710.45  DAX 30 -63.60 @9,719.41

09:25am  ~  Finally got some fairly reliable internet down here after it failed last Thursday night so I can update the diary this morning. Still in holiday mode so no chart watching for me today, we are off on the train to Looe for the day.

Looking at the U.S. equity charts for last week I can see the Portuguese ‘situation’ caused the bears to make an appearance, with the S&P500 dropping down to a support level at 1955 which was previously a small resistance in the second week of June. The Dow Jones 30 index also had a bearish week overall but seems to be recovering in futures trading this morning as worries over Portugal seem to be subsiding. Looking at the charts with a technical bias it would seem that we’re not going to experience a full-blown reversal that some traders have been predicting for the past month, it looks more like a small breather before a continued march onwards. The European Central Bank are very wary of how fragile the Euro economy is at the moment so I believe they will step in pretty sharpish to stem any worries. The German stock market has rebounded as well after resting around the 9600 support for a few days and the London FTSE 100 has also shown good gains on the market open just over an hour ago.

With all this volatility and bad news for equity traders, it is no surprise that Gold has benefited from renewed safe-haven demand, it gained $2.30 at the close of Friday’s session, finishing at $1338 although there is some weakness this morning as worries over Portugal dissipate. There is good support around the $1310 level so watch out for bullish trading opportunities there.

08:45am  ~  We have been down here in Rainy Cornwall since yesterday morning and I’ve just managed to establish a decent broadband signal this morning at the cottage we’re staying at here in Padstow.  No chart watching today as we are out all day but I may have a look tomorrow.

07:35am  ~  I have a day here at home doing some chart watching, emails and Skype calls ahead of a three week holiday in Cornwall starting tomorrow.

After the initial euphoria of better than expected job creation numbers in the U.S. last Thursday, we had another case of good news is bad news for the markets as traders guessed that increasing confidence for world’s biggest economy will mean a rate hike by the Fed sooner than was first thought and this resulted in some profit taking in U.S. equities yesterday.  The DJ30 ended above the 17,000 level again after losing 44 points during the session with the wider S&P 500 index failed again to reach 2,000 and finished nearly 8 points down at 1,977.65 with the daily chart showing a bit of technical resistance  and over here in Europe there was also a largely bearish end to Monday’s trading session as well.

WTI Crude continued its bearish stance, losing 32 cents yesterday ending at $103.40 after news that Libya is going to ‘immediately’ export upto 7.5 million barrels of oil and across in Iraq, the situation there seems to optimistic as well following increased military organisation by the Iraqui government with help from the U.S. in the fight against ISIS – Brent Crude has also continued its price drop after the high at the middle of June, it has now gone through a short term support/resistance around $110.60 but is shortly coming up against a trendline support so keep your eyes out for bullish opportunities.  Gold has also suffered from speculation that there maybe an early rate hike in the U.S. and lost just over $1 yesterday, ending at $1320 although there is some support at $1309.

Market Close Monday 7th July 2014:  Dow Jones 30  -44.05 @ 17,024.21  S&P 500  -7.79   @ 1,977.65  FTSE 100  -42.54 @ 6,823.51  DAX 30 -103.01 @9,906.07

09:15am  ~  I was just going to go off on a quick cycle ride but I’ve spotted a potential ‘short’ set-up on my Cable chart with one of the ‘Master The Reversal’ strategies so I shall hang-on for a while to see what occurs.  There was an earlier Brent Oil & Dax 30 trade I missed as I was cooking breakfast at the time for some friends who stayed last night – they are both doing ok (the trades not the friends !)

09:35am  ~  I am in a ‘short’ position on my GBP/USD chart, the stop loss is 17 pips.

10:15am  ~  That was a quick move down —  I am now out of the position with a speedy +33 pip profit and time for my cycle ride.  Just taken a chart screenshot for customers which I’ll send when I get back in a couple hours or so.

12:40pm  ~  Just got back from an extended cycle ride and I’ve switched this laptop on so I can watch some charts for a few hours before I go off for my first horse-riding lesson.

13:00pm  ~  I am now in a ‘short’ on the S&P500 — it is a trendFX set-up and the stop loss is 20 pips which very acceptable for a 30 minute chart.

14:55pm  ~  The S&P has come down nicely and as I have to be out on a few minutes I have come out of of the market happy with the +68 pips I’ve earned.  It look as though the market will go down a bit more but this will do me fine.

19:50pm  ~  Just got back indoors and we’re out soon for some supper, so no trading for me this evening.

08:25am  ~  Back in Chelmsford this morning to watch the Tour De France coming through just after lunchtime but before then I shall be here in front of the laptop catching up on emails and doing some chart watching.

The markets ended last week with one of the lowest recorded volume levels of the year on Friday, obviously due to the extended Independence Day holiday in the U.S. and with no real news over the weekend there will be a subdued open today. Despite the lacklustre ending, the London FTSE 100 index had a largely bullish week and it’s now back up near the 6870 level that it has been banging against since may 2013 and the German Dax 30 is also at record levels again that were first seen this time last month – will resistance become support soon ?  In contrast to this apparent ceiling for European indices, markets in the U.S. are forging ahead with the Dow Jones 30 hitting an all time high of 17,069 with no real hindrance for further advances. The wider S&P500 is also on a march upwards after a bullish week and is only a couple of good news announcements away from the historic 2000 level.

With all this good news in the equity markets in is inevitable that alternative ‘safe-haven’ assets are suffering and there’s a reversal candle just formed on my weekly Gold chart around the $1330 level, indicating that we may see more profit-taking this coming week after a small run-up from $1240 at the beginning of June.  High Oil prices are also a dampener on equities but traders believe that any disruption caused by Middle Eastern tensions has now largely been put to bed and as a result WTI Crude eased back once again, ending Friday’s session down 30 cents at $103.77 – and as the prices eases further we should see the effect transferring across to equities giving investors another reason to keep a bullish outlook.

Market Close Friday July 4th 2014:   Dow Jones 30  Closed     S&P 500  Closed     FTSE 100  +1 @ 6866

09:55am  ~  Some fellow cyclists have just arrived to get me out of the house so I’m turning the charts off and going out.  Nothing has really occurred on the charts so far, fairly typical of a Monday morning, the European indices will wait until the U.S. gets going this afternoon before they decide on a definite direction.  I shall be out until mid-afternoon.

23:40pm  ~  I did manage to watch the S&P500 earlier this evening but unfortunately I could not update this diary due to a problem with the software.  I switched the chart on at 5pm and took a ‘long’ trade using a “Trade With A Day Job” Manual 2 set-up  just before 6pm.  The trade ended with a quick 25 pip profit and I took a chart screenshot to send to students.

08:30am  ~  Another day away from the markets today for me, I shall again be watching the tennis this afternoon but I have some Skype calls with newbie traders this morning plus some emails to reply to as well. For those of you who will be doing some chart watching – the markets will be quite subdued today as we have the U.S. Independence Day holiday taking a lot of volume away, maybe time for a long weekend break away from your screens ?

The big news of yesterday’s trading session was news that 288,000 more jobs were added in the U.S. – way ahead of the estimate at 215K, and this managed to push the Dow Jones Industrial Average above the significant 17,000 level and ended at 17,068 up 92 points.  The wider S&P500 index also pushed up to a record high at 1985 and there does seem to be blue sky ahead on the daily chart – but will there be a climate of profit-taking on Monday once trader get back from their long weekend holiday ?

Indices in Europe did not enjoy such bullish sentiment, the European Central Bank kept their record low rate of  0.15% for the next month and traders took that as a sign that President Draghi still feels that the Eurozone still needs more help to raise growth – the Euro also suffered against the U.S. Dollar as a result. With all the accent on equities yesterday it was inevitable that investors would move away from safe-haven commodities so Gold suffered to the extent that it lost nearly $8 during the session, ending just over $1320 – as I have mentioned previously, there is a significant resistance level around $1331 so we are still seeing a move down from that level during this week after quite a few reversal candles on the daily chart, fundamentals and technicals working in harmony ?

Market Close Thursday July 3rd 2014:   Dow Jones 30  +92.02 @ 17068.26     S&P 500  +10.82 @1985.44     FTSE 100  +49 @ 6865.21