Lower to begin the month of August and the week as the Dow fell 97 points on light volume. The advance/declines were slightly negative. The summation index is moving sideways. It was a one day reversal to the downside as we opened with a gap to the upside only to lose ground for the rest of the session. The short term technical indicators for the S&P 500 are starting to roll over. The NASDAQ finished in the black though. I'm still considering the SPY August puts if we see some upside before Fridays jobs report. I'm hoping that the market holds up until then. GE has now completed its reverse stock split. I won't be reporting on it anymore after an 8 for 1 reverse split. Gold finished the day about unchanged despite a drop in interest rates. The US dollar was slightly lower. The XAU was off 1 2/3, while GDX shed 1/8. Volume was pretty light. Some of the short term indicators for GDX are overbought. I'm trying to remain patient here when it comes to purchasing the September calls. Mentally I'm feeling OK. The VIX was up today and remains above its 50 day moving average. The mid-range Bollinger band is also providing support and if that continues a decent rise in the VIX could be coming soon. That would imply lower stock prices. I am hoping for one more run up in stocks in order to purchase some August puts but we know that the market rarely cooperates with the best laid plans. Europe and Asia were higher to begin the week. We'll keep an eye on the overnight developments.