A pop in the last hour pushed the Dow to a gain of 18 points on light volume.  The advance/declines were a little over 2 to 1 positive.  The summation index continues higher.  Next week all the players will return and we will see which way things go.  Right now everything is pointing to higher prices.  The overall market is much stronger than the Dow.  The advance/decline line continues to make new highs.  My over leveraged September put position is a big loser.  Three weeks to go in the September option cycle.  GE was barely changed and the volume was light.  These September puts that I own are big losers too.  Gold was off a few bucks as the US dollar continued to climb higher.  The XAU was up 1 1/4 as the gold shares out performed the precious metal once again.  That is a bullish sign but with the strength in the dollar, I can't really see any big gains for gold coming.  ABX, GG and NEM all had fractional gains again on light volume.  My October ABX calls are losers, joining the rest of my recent poor trades.  Mentally I'm feeling OK.  We closed out the month with gains and the normal pattern of weakness in the market for this time period is not showing up yet again.  The near term technicals point to even higher prices coming.  I'll probably hold onto my September options until the employment report next Friday.  But unless we see a dramatic turnaround in equities next week, these trades will be losers.  There hasn't been a catalyst for gold and silver despite the continuing geopolitical turmoil.  I don't know what it is going to take to get this market going.  The positive seasonal influence is not happening here as well.  That trade goes out to October, so it still has time to turn positive.  But at the rate things are going there, it will probably just be another loser.  I'll be checking the charts over the long weekend and keeping an eye out on any news that may affect the markets.  For now it's the unofficial last weekend of summer and time for a break.