The Dow continued higher with some follow through to yesterdays gains. It gained 144 points on good volume. The advance/declines were 2 to 1 positive. It is looking more and more as if a double bottom is in place. However we could also just be forming a bear flag from the recent extensive decline. I'm still leaning towards trying the OEX puts, perhaps next week. We'll see what happens for the rest of the week. GE was up almost 1/4 on average volume. Looks like a possible double bottom in place here as well. No hurry for the January calls. Gold was the story of the day as it got relentlessly sold in the wake of the parabolic move upward. As usual, parabolic moves never end well. The gold futures lost just over 100 points. Yes, in one trading day. The gold shares took a hit but it wasn't as bad as the downward move in gold. The XAU fell 4 1/8 but was much lower during the day. ABX dropped 1 3/4, GG lost 1 7/8 and NEM fell a buck. Volume was heavy. The US dollar was up a touch today. Amazingly the ABX calls I own are still in the black. They've lost most of the profit since Monday but there is still a chance for this trade to work. There is still a lot of time left in them. How we close the week will be important. I'll need to see some strength going into the close on Friday. Mentally I'm feeling OK but feel a little groggy today for some reason. Perhaps it was the effect of the huge loss in gold. The stock indices are acting better here, waiting for Bernanke on Friday. I have no idea what he will say but we will have to keep an eye on the markets reaction. That will be the near term key.