09:35am  ~  It has come round to that time of the month again – yes it’s the 1st Friday of the new month so it’s Non Farm Payrolls Day, the U.S. employment figures that give us some small clue as to how the largest of the world’s economies is fairing over the past month. If you’ve read these pages before, you’ll know that I never bother trading on this day as the markets traditionally meander sideways for the European morning trading session and then at lunchtime (08:30am in New York) they then go wild in one direction or the other and we have a rollercoaster of a ride through ’til 6pm UK time. I much prefer a nice, relaxing day away from the charts instead.

Looking at yesterday’s market show the S&P500 traded in a narrow 50 point corridor for most of the day, lacking in any real direction.  In fact looking at the daily chart just now, I can see it formed a very small spinning top candle pattern, a classic sign of  indecision and quite often a reversal pattern.  This maybe partly explained by the fact that the G20 summit attendees failed to come up with a credible solution to the Syrian crisis, and there’s not much hope of that changing today, the last day of the meeting in Sweden. The Value of Oil increased slightly yesterday on the back of U.S. weekly inventories report showing a drop in stockpiles, and Gold staged a second day of fairly hefty declines on the back of increasing signs of a U.S. economic recovery. As mentioned above, all the popular charts this morning are trading in a very narrow range ahead of the lunchtime announcement.

With regard to my trading this week, there’s not much to report really as I was away in the South Of France at the beginning and there was never going to be any trading opportunities yesterday evening due to the way the markets were behaving, so all in all I’ve really only had a few hours in front of my charts – which has still resulted in a profit for the week, a total of +48 pips.

I’ve got some shopping to do this morning as I have a heap of people staying here this weekend and then I’m going to catch up on emails this afternoon here in the study and I’ve also got some Skype calls booked.

You are probably reading this page for two reasons – you want to learn to trade the markets, or maybe you’ve gone past the ‘learn to trade‘ period and you already trade in a limited capacity but you’ve not yet reached the profitability you’d expected. whatever the reason,  I’m sure you’ve got quite a few questions unanswered about how to become a profitable financial trader.

Here’s some feedback regarding a recent Skype chat I had with a trading student (click on image to enlarge)

I’ve been trading with considerable success for over 20 years, so there’s a good chance I can answer any queries you have about trading. If you’d like to learn an easy-to-copy trading strategy to get you started in trading, or if you already trade I can show you several profitable trading strategies that you can include in your daily trading regime, why not book a Skype call with me and we can chat about the possibilities.

Organise a time for a chat that suits you here:   Talk To Nick

09:35am  ~  The main U.S. markets yesterday seemed to shrug off the worries about Syria and instead took more notice about the amount of car sales that occurred in America in August – the numbers were way above all expectations. These bullish figuress helps with general optimism for the economy obviously so both the Dow Jones and the S&P500 rose well straight after the opening bell at 2:30pm UK time – and as you can see from my trading notes yesterday, I took advantage of the rise in the price and had my first long trade trade just before 5pm after I got back home.

After the rise in the value of Gold on Tuesday, we had some profit taking yesterday plus a general downturn due to the U.S. index rise – until the price hit a support level at $1384 when it levelled off and rose slightly.  Interestingly, this particular resistance level goes back to June this year, so it is something to look at in the future as well.  Oil prices had a bit of a down day as well after a week of rises on the back of the Syrian crisis and it may just level off for a while as it would seem that the threat of an attack on Syria this week seems to have dissipated for the time being. There maybe more news on this subject from the G20 meeting that starts today.

I am off for a cycle ride along the river bank now, then back here to answer some emails and have a look at my charts.

11:50am  ~  I’m back home now and I was going to watch some charts but a friend has just invited me to shooting practice on his farm so I am off for a few hours. I’ll be back at tea-time to do some trading with my “evening” system.

17:15pm  ~  Just switched my charts on a few minutes ago after arriving back home and the S&P500 chart is acting very strangely – so I’ll watch it for a short while and most probably not trade for the evening as there’s just no clear direction, the market seems to be wandering around in a shallow price corridor – no good for trading at all.

19:00pm  ~  I’ve just had another look at the S&P500 chart and there’s no real difference to it’s behaviour from the earlier this afternoon so there will be no trading for me tonight. There are a few possible reasons for this and I will explore them tomorrow morning in an email to my subscribers and also here on this page.

09:15am  ~  The main markets mostly staged falls yesterday after the U.S. holiday on Monday. It would also seem that the Syrian problem is still having an small effect on commodity prices even though the U.S. has delayed a final decision on a limited missile attack, Brent Oil rose for the second day in a row and is now sitting at just under the $116 level. As I’ve mentioned before, when there is a threat of war (however small) traders perceive that the supply of important commodities such as oil will be interrupted, so the price will rise on these fears. This phenomena usually extends to the precious metals, so we had a good rise in the value of Gold yesterday as well.  As I write this, the yellow metal is at $1407 slightly down on last night’s close.  After such a large rise in the past 24 hrs we may get a bit of profit taking today so watch out for short trade opportunities if you’re trading this morning.  Unfortunately I’ll not be in front of my Gold chart this morning watching out for these set-ups as I have a few errands to do that are inevitable after any holiday.

16:00pm  ~  Just got back from my cycle ride and switched this laptop on so I’m going to start watching my S&P500 chart in a few minutes to see what comes up in the way of trades.

17:35pm  ~  Quick update – I’m in one trade on the S&P with strategy 3 from the trendFX collection and I can also see another possible position coming up with my “evening” system.

20:20pm  ~  I’m all done with my evening trading and we’re off out now for some supper in town.   My 1st trendFX trade ended up at +38 pips when I came out at 6:30pm and my “Trade With A Day Job” position was stopped out at minus 14 pips.

Daily Target Reached ?  YES (+24 pips)     I just traded early evening today

I found this email from customer Richard Barthurst earlier this morning and it shows what I am trying to achieve when I teach people how to trade.

Here’s the email  (please click on image to enlarge)

18:00pm  ~  I got back from my mini-holiday a couple of hours ago, and now this laptop is on I’m going to have a quick look at the S&P500 chart to see if there are any trade opportunities for me.

19:05pm  ~ Well, that was a quick in and out of the market !  I could see a ‘short’ trade set-up starting to develop just before 6:30pm and within 10 minutes  was in with a short position. A few moments ago I came out with a quick 24 pip profit.

Daily Target Reached ?  YES (+24 pips)      I traded for an hour this evening

07:45am  ~  Due to the sharp drop over the past few days in the the major world indices – and for most August really –  there were bargain hunters out yesterday at the start of the U.S. trading session but this ultimately turned negative in the afternoon session as the weight of bad news overcame any buying bravado. The worries for the market include the continuing unresolved Syrian crisis, soaring energy costs and the upcoming U.S. debt ceiling problem and these all helped wipe out early gains in the markets last night.

We also have the fact that trading in August is going to end negatively for the main markets after a positive July, and traditionally September is not a good month for gains – so this all conspires to weigh heavily on traders at the moment. Oil prices hit another record high yesterday because of worries that problems in Syria may spill over to other Middle Eastern countries but it has eased back slightly now. If you just started trading stocks, you may consider using trading robots.

Yesterday was my last trading day for August as I am off later today for a short 5 day holiday in the south of France with my two sons.  My trading for this past month has given me +1625 pips overall, and my evening “Trade With A Day Job” beginners strategy ended with +297 pips.

I have a couple of Skype calls booked for this morning, but first I am off for a cycle ride up to Hylands Park now, around 8 miles there and back.

Don’t forget, if you want to have a face-to-face chat about trading, trading systems or ambitions to learn to trade, just email me and book a Skype session.

08:05am  ~  It looks like it’s going to be a wait and see day on the markets, all depends on what develops with regard to the Syria situation. The major world indices all staged a drop in price yesterday as the prospect of an attack by the US/UK seemed more likely, and as is quite normal, there was also a rush towards the safe-haven commodities such as Gold. The fact that Russia increased their reserves of the yellow metal during August also helped the value.  Syria was not quiet either, they have suggested (along with Iran) that any retaliation from them will include an attack on Israel, so all in all it does look like a very volatile situation which is going to have dramatic effects on the major markets.  As the prospect of unrest in the area gathers pace, fear of a disruption in oil supply also increases and that helped the WTI and Brent prices rise throughout  yesterday.

I’m off for a meeting now with builders at a property I’ve just bought up the road, but I’ll be back later to sit in front of my charts for a while. It will be a day to have Sky & Bloomberg News on to see what develops regarding the Syria situation.

11:00am  ~  I am back home now so this laptop is on and I’m going to have a brief look at my MT4 charts to see where the markets are this morning. Any trades that come will be reported on later.

11:45am  ~  It seems as though the major indices are resuming their downward march although there’s not much ‘new’ news regarding the situation in Syria at the moment. I am now in ‘short’ positions on both the S&P500 and EUR/USD and although the latter is showing a a few pips profit, my S&P trade is currently at minus 9 pips.  The U.S. open after  the UK lunchtime is quite a volatile period, so tight stops are needed if I’m still in the trades then – new traders should really be out around 1:15pm for safety.

13:25pm  ~  It’s time for me to wander into town and have some lunch at Cafe Rouge with friends so I’m now out of both trades mentioned previously.  The S&P500 position came out at +18 pips and the EUR/USD gave me +20 pips.

16:50pm  ~  Just got back from the hospital and I’m now going to sit down and watch the S&P500 for any set-ups with my “Trade With A Day Job” evening system. I’ll report back later with any trade details I may have.

19:15pm  ~  I have just come out of my 1st trade of the evening, it kicked off at 6:25pm and was stopped out shortly after with a minus 16 pip loss. I’m now on the look-out for a 2nd trade to make up the loss – this is a unique strategy on this system, whenever you have a losing trade, I have a way of ending the session with a profit.

21:35pm  ~  I came out of the market a short while ago – I did manage a second trade, and it came in at +57 pips meaning I ended this evening session at 41 pips ahead.

Daily Target Reached ?  YES (+79 pips)      I traded for a few hours this morning + the evening session

07:00am ~ After a bank holiday here in the UK, the markets are set to open lower after a sharp decline in the U.S. indices last night. Both the Dow Jones and S&P500 had gains through most of yesterday but as soon as Senator John Kerry started suggesting that the U.S. is no longer willing to just standby and watch the Syrian conflict but get involved in a major way, the markets reacted quite negatively with around 100 points being knocked off the S&P index over the course of their afternoon trading session.

The Gold price is at the important $1400 level but low demand from the lucrative Asian market is slowing the recent rise – we last saw the yellow metal at this level back at the beginning of June and back then the price proved to be a small resistance level and was unable to proceed upwards.  If the Syrian situation escalates in the next week or so, we may see a rush away from equity markets and into perceived safer investments such as Gold and other precious metals.

I shall be watching my MT4 charts this morning, but before that I am off on a cycle ride along the riverbank towards Maldon. I will report back later regarding any trades I find.

10:05am  ~  Right, I’m back from an invigorating 12 mile cycle ride, and if any of you spend more than 3 or 4 hours in front of computer screens while trading or simply doing your job, I would recommend riding a bike to clear your head, get fit and probably more importantly, provide yourself with some quality ‘thinking-time’ – I get my best ideas while out on a ride.

Anyway – I’m now going to get my MT4 charts up and running, and watch for any trade opportunities with two of my trading systems.

14:35pm  ~  That’s me done with trading for the time being, I’m now off to visit my mother in hospital. I managed two trades this morning, one on the S&P500 (a short obviously !) and also a ‘long’ trade on my Brent Oil chart. Due to unfolding situation in Syria, Oil prices are up on nerves and world indexes are down for the same reason I would reckon. All good trading opportunities. My S&P500 trade gave me +70 pips and the Brent Oil position came in at +131 pips.

18:30pm  ~  Just got back from the hospital so I’m going to sit down for a short while to see if I can see any “Trade With A Day Job” trading opportunities. It’s obviously not imperative that I trade tonight as I’ve already exceeded my daily pips target but having a trade enables me to send out the details to new customers so helping them with their learning.

20:45pm  ~  I have managed one trade tonight, a ‘short’ position on the S&P500 with my evening system that kicked off just before 7pm.   It ended with a +60 pip profit when I came out a few minutes ago. My score so far for August with my evening “Trade With A Day Job” system stands at +256 pips and the running total for all of my 3 trading systems this month is +1546 pips

Daily Target Reached ?  YES (+261 pips)    I traded the late morning session

18:35pm  ~  After all the panic and running around due to my mother being rushed into hospital on Wednesday I have finally got a bit of time to sit down in front of this laptop and look to see what the markets are upto – and I’m going see if there are any trade opportunities with my “Trade With A Day Job” evening system as well.

19:25pm  ~  Just got into a ‘long’ position with my evening system on the S&P500, and currently I am a few pips behind break-even. I will report back later once I have closed off the position.

21:00pm  ~  I’m out of the market now, the trade gave me a profit of 35 pips, so rounding off another successful week’s trading.

My “Trade With A Day Job” evening system has managed +78 pips over three evenings this week and my overall trading for all my systems for the week has a total profit of +196 pips.

Daily Target Reached ?  YES  (+35 pips)   I traded for a few hours this evening