A mixed bag to start the week as the Dow gained 213 points on good volume. The advance/declines were positive. The summation index is still moving higher. Both the NASDAQ and S&P 500 opened with a gap higher only to end the day lower resulting in one day downside reversals. The NASDAQ continues to lead the way down, off 1% today. The S&P had a modest loss and the short term indicators here are getting to oversold. I'm not exactly sure what's going on here but we can see that the market is in trouble. US elections tomorrow and the jobs report on Friday will most likely be market movers. The S&P 500 is breaking down from a channel formed on the daily candlestick chart that began in August. The longer term up trend line comes in at 7400. Gold bounced today with the futures up $57. The US dollar was slightly lower along with interest rates. The XAU was up 7 1/8, while GDX gained 2 points. Volume was a bit above average. Some of the short term indicators for GDX have turned up but they remain oversold and GDX finished off of its highs for the session. My GDX November calls continue as solid losers. I'm still looking at a cut the loss trade here. Mentally I'm feeling OK. The VIX was higher today and closed above the 20 level. This is another reason why the market is facing problems on the long side here. The short term indicators for the VIX are moving up with room to go before hitting overbought. So volatility will be a theme for now. Plenty of time left in the November option cycle but I don't have any SPY option trades in mind at the moment. Europe and Asia were higher overnight with the exception of Japan. We'll keep watch on this evenings developments.

Stocks got slaughtered today and only a last hour bounce kept it from being worse. The Dow fell 572 points on heavy volume. The advance/declines were negative. The summation index is still moving higher. It broke out to the upside from the upwards sloping channel yesterday which normally would be bullish. But it seems that these are not normal times for the technical indicators as I've mentioned before. I should have heeded my own advice and moved to the sidelines. The NASDAQ led the way down and lost almost 3%. The S&P 500 fell over 1 3/4%. The short term indicators there are heading down and still have room to go. The S&P is now at the lower range of the sideways channel that it has been in since the beginning of August. The weekly indicators are moving lower and have reached the mid-range level. There is a longer term up trend line that comes in around the 7400 level on the weekly chart for the S&P. Are we heading there? Gold got crushed as the futures lost $140 to close well below the 4000 level. The US dollar was slightly lower along with interest rates. The XAU lost over 18 and GDX slid 4 1/4. Volume was heavy to the downside. The short term indicators on GDX are heading lower and not quite yet oversold. GDX has clearly broken down out of the channel it was in since the beginning of September. The potential inverse head and shoulders pattern that I alluded to earlier on the weekly chart has now been negated. The weekly indicators for GDX are still moving lower and are not yet completely oversold. GLD hit a new 52 week low. Gold never saw any haven bid and is perhaps being sold now to cover margin calls. My GDX November calls are dead no matter how much time is left because they are now too far out of the money. Maybe if we see a bounce before option expiration I can cut the loss to 75% which would be considered a win at this point. Mentally I'm feeling OK. The VIX was up today and at one point traded well above the 20 level. It dropped back to close below there. The short term indicators here are now moving up and it closed above its 200 day moving average. It looks like the message here is to expect more volatility in the near term. Quite a day to end the month of October. Still three weeks to go in the November option cycle. I'll be checking the charts over the weekend as usual since volatility can create some decent trading opportunities if you can find them. Asia was mixed and Europe down with the exception of the FTSE to close out the week and month. It's Friday afternoon and time for a break.

Sellers took control today as the Dow fell 132 points on good volume. The advance/declines were better than 2 to 1 positive. The summation index remains in a channel. The inflation data came in where expected. Big tech earnings so far have been mixed. The NASDAQ led the way down by far and that isn't a good sign. The S&P 500 posted a small loss. The short term indicators there are now beginning to slip at the mid-range level. Not sure what to expect next here with the end of the month tomorrow. However todays positive breadth gives hope to the bulls. Gold was off twenty bucks on the futures. The US dollar was slightly lower and interest rates dropped. The gold shares lost ground as expected on the inflation data. The XAU fell 10 1/2, while GDX dropped over 2 1/2. Volume was about average. Some of the short term indicators for GDX have now turned lower. My GDX November calls are now showing a bigger loss. Not sure how much more time to give this idea but time is on our side for a change. Mentally I'm feeling OK. The VIX was up slightly today and the short term indicators here are beginning to stall. It looks like the daily candlestick chart here wants to go higher which would imply more selling in the near term. We'll see. Closing out October tomorrow. Europe was higher and Asia mixed last night. We'll close out the trading week tomorrow.

The Fed came and went. There wasn't much reaction as interest rates were left unchanged. The Dow gained 97 points on good volume. The advance/declines were slightly negative. The summation index remains in a channel. The NASDAQ and S&P 500 posted modest gains. The short term indicators for the S&P are still trending higher with room to go. The S&P did close above its near term down trend line. However we'll have inflation data to deal with tomorrow and it should show higher prices. There will also be big tech earnings to deal with. Gold finished up a couple bucks on the futures. The US dollar was slightly lower and interest rates were higher. The XAU was up 3 1/4 and GDX gained 3/4. Volume was light. The short term indicators for GDX appear to be beginning to stall. It would not be a surprise to see the gold shares lower on higher inflation data tomorrow. My GDX November calls continue to show a loss but less than before. This trade still has a chance to work given the amount of time left in it. Mentally I'm feeling OK. The VIX was lower today and its short term indicators are still moving down. It did finish up from the lows of the session though. The market made it through the Fed relatively unscathed. We'll see if it can get past the inflation numbers tomorrow. Europe and Asia were generally higher overnight. I'll keep an eye on tonights headlines.

Good upside for the overall market but the Dow only managed a gain of 16 points on good volume. The advance/declines were positive. The summation index remains in an upwards sloping channel. The NASDAQ led the way higher today, up over 1%. The S&P 500 had a decent gain as well. The short term indicators there are moving higher. The S&P is on the cusp of breaking through its short term down trend line. We've got big tech earnings to deal with this week and of course there's tomorrow with the Fed. No change in rates is the consensus but I would not be surprised if we get a hike. After all we have recent higher than expected inflation data and oil at new highs for the year. The new Fed chairman has talked about being tough on inflation but if the Fed doesn't raise rates in the face of the recent data perhaps there will be some credibility risk. Gold climbed $36 on the futures. The US dollar was higher and interest rates ticked up. The XAU gained 9 3/4, while GDX added a little over a couple of points. Volume was light. The short term indicators on GDX are starting to move up. My GDX November calls are still showing a modest loss. Mentally I'm feeling OK. The VIX was lower today and the short term indicators here are moving down. The daily candlestick chart for the VIX looks like it wants to go lower which would bode well for stocks. We'll have to see how things go after the Fed announcement. Europe was generally higher with the exception of the FTSE and Asia generally lower with the exception of Japan. We'll see what tomorrow brings.

A positive start to the week as the Dow gained 146 points on good volume. The advance/declines were slightly positive. The summation index remains in its channel. The NASDAQ led the way higher and that's a plus. Some of the short term indicators on the S&P 500 have started to move higher. Plenty of earnings out this week along with the Fed. Inflation data due on Thursday. So there will be plenty of excuses for the markets to move this week. I'm not exactly sure what to expect and I don't have any SPY option trades in mind at the moment. Gold rose $19 on the futures. The US dollar was a bit higher and interest rates finished mixed. The XAU was up 3 points, while GDX added around 3/4. Volume was light. GDX remains short term oversold. My GDX November calls are still showing a modest loss. Waiting to see how gold reacts to what comes out of the Fed on Wednesday. Mentally I'm feeling OK. The VIX was lower today which fits an up market. Some of its short term indicators are turning lower. Most are at mid-range, which means it could go either way from here. I would think that things would be on hold ahead of the Fed unless some more geo-political tension shows up. We'll see. Asia and Europe were generally higher to begin the week. We'll keep an eye on the overnight developments.

Heading lower as buyers remain on the sidelines. The Dow fell 652 points on good volume. The advance/declines were negative. The summation index remains in an upward sloping channel. The NASDAQ only had a minor loss today while the S&P 500 dropped modestly. Stocks cannot gain any sort of traction to the upside and I don't see when that will change. The short term indicators for the S&P 500 are moving down with some already oversold. Near term up trend lines have been broken with perhaps some support at the 7550 area. The Dow lead the way lower today. Gold continues to fall with the futures off $45. The US dollar was higher along with interest rates. The XAU lost 6 3/8, while GDX shed 1 1/2. Volume was about average. The short term indicators for GDX are trending lower and are yet to be completely oversold. GDX closed below the lower rail on its decending trend channel and that probably spells more trouble for the gold shares. My GDX November calls are now showing a modest loss as this trade is clearly in trouble. Debating when to take the loss or hold out for some type of bounce given that these options still have a month to go. At this point it looke like this was the wrong time for this idea again. Mentally I'm feeling OK. The VIX was up again today but did close below the 20 level. Its short term indicators are still moving higher with room to go. Volatility has picked up and perhaps anything goes for this indicator going forward. Stock markets are in uncommon ground right now as the usual technical indicators are not matching up with the current price movements. Probably heading to the sidelines is the most prudent course of action until things settle down. But the prospects of things returning to a more normal environment are dim at best with the Fed coming up, the US election and the ongoing geoplitical problems. I'll continue to go over the charts this weekend and try to figure out what to do with the GDX call trade. Asia was mixed and Europe lower to finish the week. It's Friday afternoon and time for a break.