More of the same today as the Dow rose 13 points on about the same level of volume as yesterday.  The advance/declines were positive.  The overall market was much stronger than the Dow, led by earnings from FB.  I'm still going to wait for the S&P 500 to get above 1700 before buying the OEX puts.  I am also considering going out to the September contract.  Of course I could simply be wrong here and the market continues to rally far past 1700 on the S&P 500.  The market goes where it wants to.  The short term technicals for the stock indices have worked off the overbought condition and are now mid-range.  GE was up a few cents on light volume.  No trades in mind here for now.  Gold came back about $10 on the futures as the US dollar took a good drop today.  I would have liked to see more rally for gold today.  The XAU was only up a point.  The gold shares were mixed.  ABX, GG and NEM had fractional moves one way or the other on average to good volume.  GG had a lousy earnings report but the stock did not fall apart.  That's a plus for the gold bulls going forward.  Mentally I'm feeling OK.  Timing is everything and we are not yet halfway through the summer.  I'm trying to remain patient.  I still think that the upside for the stock indexes is limited here.  That said, I would not be surprised by new highs in the coming days.  I could be wrong and often am.  No technical divergences just yet.  It was good to see gold hold its own today and not have any downside follow through.  We've still got to get through Friday though.  We'll keep an eye on the markets overnight and close out another summer week tomorrow.