Aaagggghhhhh!!!!!! You could hear the scream in Cork. Yesterday was one of those great days, yet I still came away feeling it could have been so much better. A few of you who followed the EURUSD chart might well have imagined me sloping off to bed grinning like the proverbial Cheshire cat. At the end of yesterday’s blog I was the proud owner of a £2 long bet in EURUSD, and the price was $1.4860. The price is now $1.5030, but my interest is purely academic, rather than financial.

Yesterday lunchtime, with the US numbers fast approaching, I sold a further £1 at $1.4880 and brought my stop up to $1.4850. The US producer prices were a lot higher than expected, but their effect on the Dollar lasted less than the time it took to make a brew. During the afternoon I moved my stop up to $1.4875 but was stopped out a couple of pips lower for a total profit on the trade of £428.

After weak consumer confidence numbers in the US I decided to have another go at the same trade, buying $1.4874 in a fiver. This time, though, I lacked ambition and treated it as the cherry on the cake. After selling £2 at $1.4889 I rushed my stop up to $1.4875 where I was sent packing a little while later. The ‘cherry’ was a paltry £33 to go on the £428 cake, but overall, Wa-hey!

So why were the markets flying faster than Superman after a dodgy kebab? Well, really it was just more of the same from the Fed. Around about the time we were having tea, Vice Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Don Kohn, made a speech at the University of North Carolina. It was the usual Fed-speak about promoting price stability and growth, blah, blah, blah, but the markets focussed on one key phrase, “We have the tools. As Chairman Bernanke often emphasises: We will do what is needed.” Wham! The US seesaw had equities flying and the Dollar plunging like Jordan’s neckline.

Watch out today for a whole selection box of goodies: GDP in the UK at 9.30am (looking for 0.6%, 2.9% on the year), EU money supply (yes, they the ECB still takes it seriously) and durable goods and new home sales in the US, plus lots of company results. Oh, and don’t forget bearded Ben Bernanke’s testimony to Congress at 3 o’clock.

Hey, have you seen the oil price? It’s just hit a new record high of $101.57. Anyone tempted to trade the black stuff (no, not Guinness) should check out A Cruder Way To Trade. But don’t forget the oil inventory numbers at 3.30 this afternoon.

Good Luck and Happy Trading