An interesting start to the week as the Dow lost 100 points on average volume. The advance/declines were about 3 to 1 negative. We started the day down hard and at one point were off 300 points. However there was never any follow through downside and we rallied almost 100 points in the last half hour. A short squeeze? Perhaps. I think it has more to do with Europe and perhaps some good news coming out of Germany tomorrow. But I don't know, of that we can be certain. I sold the OEX puts today for a 140% profit and it should have been more. The market did not react the way I wanted it to but I held on to the puts anyway. I should have dumped them early in the morning. I may buy them back before expiration but we'll have to see exactly what the market does from here. GE lost 1/2 on heavy volume. If GE is a proxy for the stock indices again then perhaps we're heading lower. It has been gapping down and is at support at $15. I'll keep an eye on it. Gold lost around $20 on the futures after hitting a new record high. The US dollar was stronger today and appears to be starting an uptrend. That could be important for the stock indices and gold going forward. The XAU was up 1/4. ABX gained 3/4, GG lost 1/8 and NEM was flat. Volume was good. The daily charts may have put in short term tops with todays action. The daily candlestick charts look like dojis at the end of an up move. We'll see what happens tomorrow. I still want to try the gold shares again when they get oversold. Mentally I'm doing OK. Still not impressed with the way I handled the exit of the OEX trade. As always, trading is an ongoing process. 8 days left in the September option cycle. I don't have any pressing ideas at the moment. The stock indices have the feel of wanting to go back up here but that is nothing to trade off of. I'll check the charts again tonight. I did have a thought of perhaps getting some gold share puts here. I'll review tonight as well. Had I properly exited the OEX trade, perhaps my confidence would be a bit better. We'll see what happens in Europe overnight and take it from there.