We ended the year on a down note as the Dow fell 69 points on holiday light volume. The advance/declines were negative. No real news of the day or anything else to report. All the players will be back next week after another long weekend. GE was off 1/8. I'm carrying the GE calls that I own into the new year. That was the plan and I'm sticking to it. I'm expecting the stock indices to move higher in the beginning of 2012 and GE should go along for the ride. GE's earnings come out on January expiration Friday but I won't be holding them that long. At least I hope not. Gold had good day, up $25 on the futures and it was higher than that during day. The US dollar was weaker. The XAU was up only 1 1/4 though. ABX was flat, GG up 3/4 and NEM fell 1/3. A mixed bag to be sure. Volume was light. I'm pretty sure that I'm going to try the gold share calls in the beginning of January. I just need to see a decent signal in the Gold/XAU ratio. We'll see if that happens. Mentally I'm feeling OK. Today puts a close to the 2011 trading year. My trading account gained about 65% for the year. It should have been better and it could have been worse. At least it wasn't a repeat of last years debacle. But it really doesn't matter. Win or lose, it's over and done with. The only thing relevant now is the trading for 2012. You have to keep trying to move forward in the game and sometimes it isn't easy. The only thing that I can say for sure is that you've got to keep doing the work. Day in and day out. Week in and week out. Month in and month out. Year in and year out. There are no shortcuts. Do that and you might have a chance. Don't do it and your doomed. My general scenario at the moment is to be looking for strength in the stock indices at the beginning of the year. That should give me an opportunity to dump the GE calls. I'd also like to try the gold share calls for the January option cycle as we still have three weeks to go there. That's about all on my radar screen for now. We're still subject to headline risk out of Europe with their ongoing debt problems. Trouble there could pop up at any time. However for now it's the last Friday afternoon of 2011 and time for a rest. Here's wishing everyone a prosperous trading year in 2012.