A mixed bag today as the Dow rose 71 points on average volume. The advance/declines were 2 to 1 negative. The summation index is back to tracking sideways. The overall market was weaker than the Dow with both the NASDAQ and S&P 500 lower. The S&P is still short term overbought but the indicators are beginning to roll over. I still favor the SPY August puts at some point. As I've said the timing will have to be spot on and we don't have a clear signal just yet. It wasn't exactly a great start to the month for stocks but we'll see how the rest of the week plays out. Gold got dumped as the futures were off $27. The US dollar was higher along with longer term interest rates. The XAU lost 4 1/2, while GDX shed over 1 1/8. Volume was above average to the downside. GDX is getting short term oversold but not all the way there yet. Price needs to stay above the 30 level or the inverse head an shoulders pattern here will be negated. Unfortunately for me it doesn't look like 30 will hold after todays price action. My GDX August calls are back in the red. Had a chance at a small profit yesterday and in retrospect probably should have taken it. If our scenario of a drop in equity prices is correct, the gold shares will most likely go with them. Even though there are still over 2 weeks left in the August option cycle this GDX trade now doesn't look like the right idea. The volume pattern here in the near term looks negative. Mentally I'm feeling OK. The VIX was up today and that fits with the overall lower market. The short term technical indicators here are now mid-range and so they could go either way. Might wait until Fridays employment report to decide. I'm not sure which way the VIX will go. Europe and Asia were lower with the exception of Japan. We'll keep an eye on the overnight developments.