Back to the upside today as the Dow climbed 91 points on light volume.  The advance/declines were about 3 to 1 positive.  Today should turn the summation index up.  I bought the September OEX puts today.  The scenario of a light volume rally after the initial drop is playing out as hoped for.  However my entry today was rushed and I could have gotten a better price on the options.  I still think this is the proper trade unless we continue to move higher past the 1955 level on the S&P 500.  So we'll see what happens.  GE was up almost 1/4 and the volume was light.  The September puts that I have here are now at break even.  It's a good idea to keep an eye on GE here as well for clues to the overall market direction.  Gold was up a bit on the futures and the US dollar was a little higher as well.  The XAU was flat on the session.  ABX was off 1/8,  GG rose 3/8 and NEM was flat on the day.  Still waiting for gold and the gold shares to break higher.  Short term overbought for now here.  My October calls for ABX are still in the black but not by as much as before.  Mentally I'm feeling frustrated with myself on the September OEX put entry.  I should have let the trade come to me but I got anxious.  There is nobody to blame here but myself.  Hopefully I'll do better on the exit.  Plenty of time for this trade to work.  Building a top here on the stock indexes would be the preferred price action.  However as always, the market will go where it wants.  Over five weeks to go in the September option cycle.  Gold remains in a trading range.  Hopefully the favorable seasonal pattern kicks in at some point this month.  August expiration is on Friday.  So we'll keep an eye on the foreign markets overnight and see what transpires.