A good start to the week for the bulls as the Dow gained 85 points. Advance/declines were more than 2 to 1 positive and the volume was light. Still stuck in the trading range though. I don't see any high volume breakout occurring one way or the other until next year. I could be wrong though and often am. I'd expect the market to drift higher for the rest of the week. Gold was hit again today, down $15 and lower in the aftermarket. The XAU held up well, off 1 1/2. ABX and GG had fractional losses, while NEM dropped 1 1/4. Volume was average. The dollar was higher today. The gold shares held up better than the metal itself and that could be bullish going forward for the gold shares. I still have an order in for some ABX January calls though I did adjust it down a touch on the price. The longer term uptrend line is holding for now and we remain oversold. Mentally I'm doing OK but I'm not feeling that well today. A short trading week this week and next. The sidelines isn't a bad place to be but traders will be trying to position themselves for the start of the new year. I'm still going to give the gold share calls a try if my order is filled. So we'll see what happens.