Selling to start the week as the Dow fell 240 points on good volume. The advance/declines were negative. The summation index is trending lower but not with conviction. The S&P 500 was down but remains short term overbought. The short term indicators have turned down though. Have we missed the chance for the SPY December puts? Perhaps. We will know for sure after the inflation data on Wednesday and the market reaction to it. Patience for now. Gold was up twenty bucks as geo-political tensions rose over the weekend. The US dollar was slightly higher along with interest rates. The XAU was up 4 1/2, while GDX jumped 1 1/8. Volume was good to the upside although the gold shares were off of their best levels for the day. Some of the short term indicators for GDX turned back up. Not sure now if it's headed back to the 200 day moving average. Mentally I'm feeling a bit frustrated if I've missed the SPY put trade. However I can't let that affect me going forward. I do still have another trade idea for the Fed meeting next week but that is pretty risky as there will be only three days left in the December option cycle. The VIX was higher today and that fits a down market. The short term indicators here have turned up. If the VIX continues higher, the market should keep heading lower and the SPY put trade will be missed. Hasn't happened yet but now that possiblity exists. Asia and Europe were mixed to begin the week. We'll see if we get follow through selling tomorrow.