A back and forth session to end the week as the Dow gained 34 points on pretty light volume.  The advance/declines were just about even.  The summation index is still moving up.  The overall market was a bit weaker than the Dow.  Lately the market action seems to me to be of the summer doldrums variety.  The volume is lacking and with the exception of Tuesday, the volatility has been muted.  It was a losing week for me and there are only five days left in the August option cycle.  GE was up a few cents and the volume was pretty light.  Gold fell around ten bucks on the futures and the US dollar was lower.  The XAU and GDX had fractional losses on very light volume.  I'm keeping my eye on the gold share calls here.  mentally I'm feeling OK.  The VIX was down a touch and appears to be ready to go even lower.  That would bode well for the market in expiration week if it comes to pass.  We are still oversold here just as the S&P remains overbought.  I'm guessing that we'll see new all time closing highs for the S&P 500 at some point next week.  I had thought that the lack of the US coming up with the next stimulus deal would throw the market for a loop.  However it appears that the market is ignoring that for now.  I did chase the SPY August puts this week and failed.  They did show a quick profit by the close on Tuesday but things reversed overnight and I was stuck with another losing couple of trades.  We now approach expiration week with the high risk that it entails.  I'm not exactly sure that I'm up to the task.  I'll have time to mull over the charts and see what I can find this weekend.  Asia was mixed and Europe lower to close out the week.  It's Friday afternoon and time for a break.