The day began with a promising start as the Dow was up over 100 points early.  It faded however and finished the day with a gain of 30 points on pretty light volume.  The advance/declines were 2 to 1 positive.  This should turn the summation index back up.  The market action in the final hour this week has been filled with selling, which isn't a positive sign.  That said, it does have the feel of a market that wants to eventually go higher as the advance/declines have been positive lately and do not show the sign of a breakdown happening anytime soon.  I do still have in the open order for the SPY September puts but will have to consider other paths over the weekend.  GE was up about 20 cents on light volume.  Gold was up $4 on the futures as the US dollar sank.  Gold has not rallied as much as you would expect with the weakness of the US dollar for quite some time.  Not sure what that means but it isn't a bullish scenario.  The XAU and GDX were mixed with small moves one way or the other on very light volume.  Mentally I'm feeling OK.  Today was a summer session to be sure with not a lot of volume.  Will it be another week of this?  Probably.  The RUT has broken its accelerated short term downtrend line but there is not a lot of conviction there.  Perhaps this is a snap back on the weekly chart there but that's just a guess at this point.  The S&P 500 has yet to get back to the 2465 level and that is the shorting point for me.  I'd like to see some upside there into Tuesday or Wednesday to try the September puts.  But that's just a wish at this point because the market is a thinly traded void right now.  We do have the employment report to deal with in a week on Friday.  I'd like to take a position ahead of that if possible.  I'll have to double check everything over the weekend as sitting on the sidelines until after Labor day is a possibility as well.  Never easy in the game and the battle is usually with myself.  The short term technical indicators for the S&P are about mid-range at the moment.  So you can see that a clear signal is not evident.  Asia was higher and Europe a touch lower in last nights trade.  It's Friday afternoon and time for a break.