09:35am  ~  After quite a late night out, I’ve had a lie-in this morning and I’ve just got down here to the study and switched on my laptops & desktop computers.  I’ve some emailing to do plus two Skype calls with a budding students in Melbourne & Johannesburg.  I’ll watch some charts as well and fit in a cycle ride at some stage before lunchtime.

Although the U.S. markets ended down last night, overnight futures markets staged a small rally for some reason so European markets may be on the bullish side this morning, although with the Non Farm Payrolls numbers out at the end of the week we may see trading in a range for the next few days. Brent Oil suffered more bearish activity yesterday as U.S. oil inventories continue to show a glut together with the European Commission’s cut in growth forecast meaning demand is lower than was expected. Gold has been dropping now for 6 trading sessions but has seemed to have rested at a support level of $1305 so we may see a small bullish movement over the next few days – keep an eye on the chart.

11:50am  ~  There’s not much happening on my charts this morning so I’m off for a cycle ride at midday followed by some lunch at the Lord Nelson.  This afternoon I’m off for some shooting practice with my youngest son but should be back to trade my evening system.

19:10pm  ~  We’ve just got in so I’m switching my MT4 chart on to see if there’s any trading opportunities in the last part of the evening session – report back later.

21:00pm  ~  I did end up with a long trade on the S&P500 which I got into at 7:30 and I came out  a few minutes ago with my normal 20 pips.

Daily Target Reached ?  YES  (+20 pips)       I traded the morning session plus a few hours this evening

07:45am  ~  A nice early start for me today after four days away from the market. I’ve some emailing to catch up on so I am going to spend the morning here in the study with charts open as well. If the rain slows down slightly I’ll also get out on a bike at some stage before lunch.

The main indices yesterday posted another record finish, way above any level we’ve seen before even taking into account the highs of 2000/2007. This may partly due to FOMC Member James Mullard’s comments regarding the U.S. Federal Reserve’s economic stimulus. His comments on inflation suggest that the Fed would be in no rush to pull back from its current stimulus. This may change early next year though, when both Plosser and Fisher, both more hawkish, become voting members, but for now investors are erring towards caution ahead of this Friday’s October Non Farm Payrolls report.

07:55am  ~  There looks like a couple of trade set-ups emerging on my Gold & S&P500 charts, just waiting for prices to hit either of the trigger levels.

08:30am  ~  I’m in both of the aforementioned trades, and at the moment they’re looking ok.

10:05am ~  I am off out now for an hour or so with a couple of trading friends for a cycle ride down towards Walberswick, so I have set stops at break-even on both my earlier positions, but no profit target yet, I’ll see where they’ve got to when I get back.

11:30am  ~  Just sat back down here in the study and I can see my Gold trade has been stopped out at break-even but my S&P500 position is at +35pips.

15:35pm  ~  I have just closed off my S&P trade, the bulls seem to have become the dominant force on the chart in the last 15 minutes, so I’m happy with my 87 pip profit. Off now to pick up some parts for an old Porsche I’m going to start restoring through the winter but I’ll be back at 5 o’clock o do some trading with my evening system.

20:50pm  ~  I did start my evening trading session just before 6 o’clock and I had one (long) trade which was stopped out at minus 16 pips. I am off out now for some supper at The Crown with ‘Head-Office’

Daily Target Reached ?  YES  (+71 pips)          I have traded on and off for most of the day.

09:10am  ~  I’m back home in the UK and I’ve got some errands to do this morning just because I’ve been away for a week, then I’m going off to the cottage in Suffolk after lunch. Not much time for sitting down in front of a laptop today and watching my charts but hopefully tomorrow will be less busy.

It’s that time again, and at the end of another trading week I have quite a few charts here sent in by students who are showing their own efforts on the markets over the past five days.

This week it’s the turn of Colin Williamson, a new trader who earned £795 from a ‘short’ trade on his Brent Oil chart. Here’s the chart screenshot he sent over. (Click on image to enlarge)

And this is the email that came with the screenshot.

The trade he took was the ultra-reliable UTB set-up from my “Any-Time” collection of trading strategies.

11:50am(CET)  ~  A late start for all of us after a very long, noisy and busy evening – and after lunch we are travelling back to the UK , so no trading for me today. Remember, even though it’s the first Friday of the month, we’ve not got the Non Farm Payrolls announcement today, it’s next week instead, mainly due I believe to the U.S. Government shutdown last month.

10:45am (CET)  ~  Interesting happenings on the markets last night, after the Fed Announcement the markets in the U.S. took a dramatic drop and there have been mixed explanations this morning amongst traders as to why it occurred. My own feelings are that Bernanke wanted to slow down this weird up-trend in equities by ignoring the effects the government shutdown had on the overall economy and instead look on the bright side and suggests that the economy was beginning to look positive. This then hints that tapering (Slow down of government money-printing) may start earlier than expected so traders take that as a negative. This also had an effect on Gold prices, as a stronger economy will have less need for safe-haven investments, so the yellow metal dropped in value yesterday afternoon, but has now just hit a support level on the daily chart.  WTI Crude Inventories came in higher again, so that too had a negative effect on Oil prices.

Not sure how much time I’m going to have in front of this laptop looking at charts today, we are off clay-pigeon shooting later this morning and then off to Palma later in the day to see an estate agent about a parcel of land for sale locally.  I will report back later if I have anything trading related to report.

17:35pm (CET)  ~  Just got back and I’ve promised to show some of this week’s guests how to trade the main U.S. market, so we’re going to sit down now and watch the S&P500 chart.

19:45pm (CET)  ~  I’ve had one trade on the S&P500 and as it’s well over my daily target I am going to switch of my MT4 chart now.  The trade was a ‘long’ position, joining in on the upward trend that’s prevailed for most of the afternoon and I came out with +37 pips.

Daily Target Reached ?  YES  (+37 pips)        I traded for just a few hours this evening

10:55am (CET)  ~  A lazy start to the day after a very late last night in ‘Stay’ restaurant last night. It’s a bit overcast so my plan is to stay around the house this morning and also watch a few charts – a couple of other guests here this week are showing some interest in trading so I’m going to give them some pointers. First I’m going to cook breakfast with some fresh eggs from the farm.

The markets yesterday are still marching upwards even though the bad news from the U.S. is continuing – it would seem that adverse economic data will persuade the Fed to postpone their tapering of economic stimulus, and that in turn is good for the markets. So bad news is good news it would seem – confused ? Adding to this confusion is the fact that any bearish traders are now wondering whether they are missing out on this push upwards, so are gradually abandoning their pessimistic views and joining in on the buying spree.  Weak economic data in the U.S. has put pressure on perceived Crude Oil demand, so WTI Crude weakened slightly yesterday and we’ve got the weekly inventories report later today which will probably show another rise which will put further pressure on prices.  A rebound in the U.S. Dollar put downside pressure on the Gold price and it ended around $8 down on the day, although it’s still above the 50 period moving average and in a bullish trend.

11:30am (CET)  ~  I am in a ‘long’ position on my Gold chart it is a trendFX strategy 3 pattern set-up.

12:35pm (CET)  ~  And now I’ve got myself into a short position on my S&P500 chart, much to the amusement of a couple other guests that are staying here (Julie & Anne) My Gold position has been up and down in the last hour and is now sitting at break-even.

15:40pm (CET)  ~  My ‘long’ Gold trade started slowing down slightly and it’s well above my daily target so I’m now out of the market. It achieved +60 pips. The S&P trade is still trundling downwards I am pleased to report.

17:00pm (CET)  ~  Well, it’s that time of the day again, the start of my “Trade With A Day Job” strategy so I’m staying on front of my laptop for a while. Tonight’s session will be shorter than normal though as we have the Fed statement out in an hour, the U.S. market usually react with a certain amount of volatility so if I do have a trade soon I will be out before 7pm (6pm UK time)

18:50pm (CET)  ~  I did get into a “Trade With A Day Job” position just after 6pm but time is getting close to the Federal Reserve announcement so I’m out of that one plus I have also closed off my other S&P trade I mentioned earlier.  The results are +102 pips and +30 pips and I’m now going to send students the screenshots for their own revision, and then I believe we’re off into Puerto Pollensa for the evening.

Daily Target Reached ?  YES  (+192 pips)           I have traded on and off most of the day

08:55am (CET)  ~  European markets are set to open flat as traders gather their thoughts ahead of this weeks FOMC meeting. Markets saw some profit-taking yesterday as traders appraised their positions and markets are now expected to keep trading within a tight range until the Fed meeting on Thursday shows us what’s going to happen about Bernanke’s stimulus programme.  No matter what the consensus may be, traders remember that from last month that forecasts can be 100% wrong.  So until Thursday, expect markets to tread water.

The US economic figures released yesterday continued to add to worries that a slowdown might be on the cards. This time it was pending home sales numbers – they plunged faster than predicted in September, the fourth dive in a row.  Gold prices yesterday oscillated around their 6 weeks high at $1353.5 on expectation that postponing the tapering is more likely than not.

Not sure if I’m going to be doing any trading today, if the weather is as nice as yesterday, we’re off for some horse-riding and I’ve also got to pick-up a rental car in Palma. So far it’s very cloudy and there looks like rain on the horizon though !

12:10pm (CET)  ~  As I thought earlier, there’s not much been happening on the markets this morning, but I have managed to have a long trade on my S&P500 chart. I got into the position a few minutes ago and I am currently at ‘break-even’ so I will report back soon as to the outcome, I’m not going to stay in very long as we are off out soon. My stop-loss on the trade is 14 pips.

13:50pm (CET)  ~  I am now out of the market with a quick 20 pip profit.

21:05pm (CET)  ~  We got back here at 7pm and I did switch on my MT4 charting software to see if there was anything happening on the markets tonight. At 8:30 I got into a ‘long’ position on my S&P500 chart and a few minutes ago I came out with quick 20 pip profit.

Daily Target Reached ?  YES  (+40 pips)       I traded late morning for a short while plus a couple of hours this evening

23:40pm (CET)  ~  The weather out here has been very sunny today so we’ve been out on the boat for most of the day – so no trading to report

09:50am  ~  After a very late card evening that ended at 3am this morning, I am having a very gentle and late start to the morning.  We are off to Stansted later on to fly out to a friend’s farm in Majorca, but before that I have some Skype calls and emails to respond to this morning.  I shall also switch on my charts to see if there’s any trading opportunities to take advantage of.

On the markets yesterday the U.S. Dow Jones had another positive session ending up 104 points at 15526. Good corporate earnings news  together with an understanding among traders that tapering will not start until early next year at the earliest has kept the index slowly trundling northwards for most of this week.  Over here in Europe we have had the German IFO release early this morning, which came out a bit lower than was expected. This report surveys 7ooo German businesses regarding their confidence for the near future and gives a good near-term economic outlook for the country and also the wider eurozone area. We also had preliminary UK GDP figures released which were broadly in line with expectations. Gold is still on the rise after finding chart support at $1330 as mentioned previously here – profit taking today perhaps at the end of the week ?

11:55am  ~  There’s not been much to get excited about on the markets this morning, but I have just got into a ‘short’ position on my Brent Oil chart.

12:30pm  ~  There’s more to report as the markets have livened up slightly. My earlier Brent Oil trade has been stopped out at minus 17 pips, and I’m in a long trade on the S&P500.

15:10pm  ~  I am now out of my S&P500 trade. The price was going up slowly but as I have some things to sort out before we fly out later, I have closed the trade off at +37 pips giving me exactly 20 pips for the day, right on my daily target.

Daily Target Reached ?   YES  (+20 pips)    I have been watching my charts every 30 minutes since 10 o’clock this morning – resulting in two trades.