The Dow took off to the upside today, gaining 371 points on good volume.  The advance/declines were almost 5 to 1 positive.  The summation index is still moving lower but another day like today will start to turn things around there.  We did get a signal last night from the McClellan oscillator for a big move in the next two sessions.  Today takes care of that.  The short term technical indicators for the major averages have turned around to the upside.  A rally out of nowhere is what happens during declines, so I'm not exactly sure if this has staying power.  I bought some SPY August puts today but my timing wasn't good.  They are already showing a small loss.  This trade already seems like it could be a mistake but we'll see what happens.  GE was up a few cents but the volume was lighter than it has been.  Gold was off around $6.  The US dollar finished little changed yet again.  The XAU and GDX had fractional gains higher on OK volume.  Remaining overbought on the gold shares and it has been an incredible rally there.  Mentally I'm feeling OK.  I decided to try a trade here today because I could see no reason for the market to take off to the upside as it did.  My regret is that I didn't wait for a better strike price.  No matter, what's done is done.  If my prognosis of a declining market is correct, we should see a run back towards this weeks lows.  That would be the short term bottom put in at around the 282 level for SPY.  Or it is entirely possible that the lows there are the bottom and we trade higher from here.  It isn't out of the question.  The VIX closed below its 200 day moving average and just below the 17 level.  We have come off of the short term overbought levels here as well.  16 is the key number here for me.  If we stay above it more decline and volatility will occur in my view.  We'll see.  With only six days to go in the August option cycle, this is a trade that has to go my direction fairly soon.  And if so, do I hold it over the weekend or not?  Do I simply take the loss tomorrow and move on?  Always an abundance of questions in the game.  I'll see how things go overnight and take it from there.  Interesting times to be sure.  Europe and Asia were higher overnight and I'd expect the same tonight following the lead of the US market.  We'll close out the trading week tomorrow.