Back to the downside now as the Dow lost 225 points on good volume. Advance/declines were 3 to 1 negative as we got the opposite of Tuesdays action. It makes for a tough trading market. I guess that's why I'm on the sidelines at the moment. Time for the OEX calls again? I certainly don't know and don't think it's worth the risk at the moment. Patience is what I'm calling for. It isn't easy. Gold lost $5 and the XAU fell 1 1/2. ABX and GG were both off 1/2, while NEM eeked out a small gain. Here is where I'd like to make a play and getting long is my choice. However I'm trying to wait until the dollar stops going up as it did again today. I really think that gold is done on the downside here for the most part. However I could be wrong and have been lately. GE lost 40 cents on light volume. No hurry there to try anything. I keep an eye on it as a proxy for the overall market but it isn't the greatest trading vehicle. Mentally I'm feeling OK. Doing my best to not make any stupid moves before expiration next Friday. But you never know. I don't see any compelling short term set-ups at this point in time. Yes, I'm looking at the gold shares again but I'd like to go out to the October options and they're expensive. So it's a wait and see type of approach for now. As I've said I even might wait until Labor Day to make the next trade but that is a long way off. Discipline isn't easy and it's not for everybody. But if you want to succeed in the game, you've got to have it. So I'm going to try and wait things out here and see where that leads.