A mild expiration Friday as the Dow gained 42 points on average volume. The advance/declines were positive. We opened higher and spent most of the day in positive territory. Still oversold here though in my opinion. I think that we'll trend higher from here for a while but that's a guess as usual. I'm still considering the OEX August puts if I feel the opportunity presents itself. GE was off 1/8 on average volume. Still below the 200 day moving average. No trades in mind for GE. Gold was flat on the day but higher in the aftermarket as we approach $1600. The XAU rose 2 2/3. ABX, GG and NEM all had fractional gains to the upside on light volume. I think the gold shares will be going higher even though they are overbought at the moment. I may try some ABX August calls in the near future. The US dollar dropped a touch today. Again, gold had a valid breakout this week in my opinion and the trend is up. Hopefully there will be some type of pullback in order to establish a long position. Mentally I'm doing OK, slept well enough. 2 weeks left in the month of July and the summer has been anything but quiet. We'll see if that keeps up all summer. The August option cycle has an extra week on it so there is really no hurry there. I'm going to try and wait for a decent signal and go from there. If the stock indices rally back up to the recent highs, I'll be getting some OEX puts. If the gold shares pull back a bit, I'll be trying the calls there. That is the game plan at the moment. It is a beautiful summer afternoon and time to take a break.