David Fuller's view Early this morning I noticed that precious metal futures were mostly firm in Asian trading, whereas in recent months they have often weakened, particularly following steady action on in the US markets. Platinum was lagging temporarily, when I checked, although it had the best upward dynamic last week so I decided to open a long trade, paying $1456.1, including spread-bet dealing costs, for an October position. While I hope that these markets are beginning to trend a little more, given earlier volatility I now have a breakeven stop protecting this latest purchase. Once again, I now have longs open in all four futures-traded precious metals. My other trading positions are longs in coffee and the Nikkei, and I still have the JGB futures short, which is doing me no favours at the moment.

Stop Press: I decided to take the profit in my coffee long because it was becoming temporarily overextended. This afternoon I sold my long in the September Arabica contract at 180.15¢, against my purchase at 166.30¢ on 29th June. These prices include all spread-bet dealing costs. I may repurchase coffee in the event of an orderly pullback.