The short expiration week starts off with some volatility, with a morning decent sell off followed by buying to get back to positive territory. The Dow rose 32 points on heavy volume. The advance/declines were sightly positive. The summation index is still trending higher. Most of the major indices posted slight gains. The short term indicators for the S&P 500 are trending sideways. We now have a short term buy signal from one of our indicators but it isn't the strongest that we've seen. I did place an overnight order for the SPY February calls but it wasn't filled. I tried to jump in front of the signal and it almost worked. I might try this trade again tomorrow if we see some weakness in the S&P. However this is a short term trade with only three days to go in the February option cycle. Getting filled today would have been a better scenario. I can only make a case for staying in this trade for a day. Gold fell $144 on the futures. The US dollar was higher and interest rates finished flat. The XAU dropped 13 1/8 and GDX lost 3 3/4. Volume was above average. The gold shares did come up off of the worst levels for the session. The short term indicators for GDX are pointing down at the mid-range level. No GDX option trades in mind at the moment. Mentally I'm feeling at bit dissatisfied that my overnight order wasn't filled. The VIX was a bit lower today but remains above the 20 level. The short term indicators are still tracking sideways. Not sure where the VIX is heading. I will go over things tonight and decide if the SPY call trade is worth the risk. What was open in Asia finished mixed, while Europe ended the day higher. We'll see how it goes tomorrow.