The Dow lost 41 points to end the month today. Volume was average and the advance/declines were slightly positive. We have been moving sideways for a while now. I don't foresee any big moves anytime soon but what do I know? Not much. Gold was down around 4 bucks today and the XAU lost a point and a half. I bought some NEM calls on the pullback. I'm believing that the gold breakout was for real and I expect gold to go over $600 before the options expire in 3 weeks. I could be wrong, as I was earlier in the week when I sold the ABX calls at a substantial loss. I did say that I needed to take a break but I now feel the opportunity is now. Sometimes you have to be flexible. I could be entirely wrong on this trade and will sustain heavy losses. I also could be right in my assessment of what is going on. Trading is not an exact science. I believe in what I'm doing and we'll have to wait it out and see what happens. Mentally I need to get some rest over the weekend. This has been a tough week. But I am trying to stay focused and do what needs to be done. I am taking a risk here and I will do my best to make it work out the right way. The markets will do what they do. I think I'm doing the right thing here. Time will tell. I'll check the charts over the weekend and start all over again on Monday.