An interesting session as the Dow was down for most of the day but made a last hour comeback to finish up 69 points. The advance/declines were negative and the volume was good. It feels like the Dow is trying to put in a bottom here. However I am considering some OEX puts before the week is out. We still have a down trend line that is in effect until broken to the upside. The European indices have already broken down through the congestion zones that the US indices currently find themselves in. With only 4 days to go on the September options the risk is high. I may have to consider going out to October but the premiums are very high. GE was off a touch on heavy volume. I'm still looking out to January there for the calls. No hurry. Gold took a hit to start the week, off $46 on the futures. We came back a bit in the aftermarket. The US dollar was higher today but closed off of its highs. The XAU was down 6 points but was much lower. ABX off 1 1/4, GG fell 2 1/4 and NEM shed 1 1/4. All of these issues were lower during the day as well. I thought about getting some ABX calls for this week but did not do it. Again, the risk in trading this week will be very high. The potential for profit somewhere is out there. However the chance for loss is just as great. Mentally I'm doing OK. The stock indices had an upside reversal today, opening lower and closing higher. We are more oversold than overbought as well. I think I will wait and see if we make it to the down trend line and then buy the OEX puts at that point. That's the idea at the moment.