Unemployment numbers came in strong but we had a mixed market as the Dow gained 144 points on light volume. The advance/declines were positive. The summation index is trying to turn back up again but remains in a sideways channel. The overall market was weaker than the Dow, with the NASDAQ in the red. The S&P 500 closed at another new all time high and remains short term overbought. I'm thinking that if we stay higher on Monday or Tuesday, I'm going to try the SPY August puts. That's what I've got in mind right now but I'll look things over again on the weekend. I'm also considering just staying on the sidelines because the volume is pretty light and many players just aren't at their desks. The S&P is pretty much going sideways lately as well. Gold got crushed today as the futures fell over forty bucks to the near term support. The US dollar was higher on the jobs report. Interest rates jumped up on the strong employment numbers. The XAU fell 3 points, while GDX dropped a point. Volume was good to the downside although the price drop in the gold shares could have been worse. GDX is also at its near term support but at this rate it isn't going to hold. If it drops to the 31 level, that may be the time to try the September calls. I'm certainly glad that I remained patient with that idea for now. Mentally I'm feeling OK. The VIX was lower and broke below its 50 day moving average. This implies some more rally for stocks. Short term oversold and staying that way for the VIX. This is another reason to be patient for the SPY puts and maybe just forget about them in this option cycle. But we'll see. I'll go over the scenarios again this weekend and take it from there. Europe and Asia were higher to finish the first week of August. It's Friday afternoon and time for a break.