Still trying to slug our way higher here as the Dow rose 39 points on lighter than lately volume.  The advance/declines were positive.  The summation index is heading lower.  Running out of time for another SPY trade in the February option cycle.  I'm looking at the puts here on a very short term basis.  But the prudent move would be no move at all here because time is not on your side.  The short term technical indicators have started to move up here for the SPY.  I think that I'm going to wait for an actual signal though.  We don't have one yet.  We'll get inflation data tomorrow but one number isn't a trend.  However there is a chance the market will be fixated on it.  GE was off over 1/8 and the volume remains pretty good.  I would like to try the March calls here and now is as good a time as any.  But for some reason I'm holding off.  I think that the overall market will head lower in the coming days and take GE with it.  Then I might try the March calls here if the premiums get low enough for me.  Gold was up $5 on the futures as the US dollar was lower.  The XAU and GDX were little changed on very light volume.  Mentally I'm feeling OK.  Three days in a row higher for the overall market and we haven't seen that for a couple of weeks.  But we'll have to get through expiration week before a long holiday weekend.  I'll expect a rollover here at some point before the end of the week.  I'll also be looking at a test of the recent lows to set up the March calls.  That is potentially my next SPY trade as well.  There won't be any rush to do anything because there really isn't a decent signal one way or the other just yet.  So I think that patience will be your friend here.  Asia was mostly higher with the exception of NIKK.  Europe was down.  We'll keep an eye on the developments overnight.