We finally got a sell off today as the Dow fell 234 points on average volume.  The advance/declines were slightly better than 2 to 1 negative.  The summation index is still heading up but another day like today could change that.  The overall market didn't drop as much as the Dow and that's a plus.  More tension over the weekend about North Korea as the geo-political issues surface again for the market.  Well the puts I sold for a loss on Friday would have been profitable today.  However placing the stop loss order was the prudent thing to do and I'll be doing it again from now on.  I will not chase the market lower here but I will be looking at the SPY October puts going forward.  GE was off over 1/3 and the volume was good.  I'm still looking at the January calls here.  Gold was up $5 on the futures as the US dollar was a bit lower.  The XAU added around 1 3/4, while GDX gained 1/2.  Volume was average.  Money continues to be coming into gold and gold related assets but we are short term overbought here.  Mentally I'm feeling OK.  A rough beginning to a shortened trading week as traders return from summer vacation.  The rally up into Friday did have light volume so it isn't a surprise that we are backing off.  Whether or not this is the beginning of something real remains to be seen.  We're at the mercy of headline risk again and that isn't an easy kind of market to trade.  I'll simply wait for the next technical signal and take it from there.  Right now the short term indicators have turned down but there is no clear signal one way or the other.  We did get a spike in volatility today but have come off of the highs there for the day.  One day doesn't make a trend so we'll see where we go from here.  I'm of the belief that we are way overdue for some kind of sell off but the timing of such an event remains uncertain.  Again, I'll wait for a decent signal and hopefully act accordingly unless events prove other wise.  Asia was mixed and Europe mostly lower  overnight.  We'll see how it goes tomorrow.