To the upside today as the Dow gained 372 points on average volume. The advance/declines were positive. The summation index is still tracking sideways. The NASDAQ led teh way higher and that's a plus. The S&P 500 is getting close to short term overbought. It is also getting close to the down trend line that has been in effect since the beginning of the year. I've put in an order for the SPY February puts that should get filled if we reach that down trend line. I'm not overly confident in this idea because the summation index needs to start moving back up. But I'm willing to give it a try if it gets filled tomorrow ahead of the inflation data on Thursday. Gold rose six bucks on the futures. The US dollar and interest rates were a bit higher. The XAU gained 2 1/2, while GDX was up 1/3. Volume was light today. The gold shares have done well lately and there's still room on the short term technical indicators to go higher. This was a missed trade on my part but we'll see how it goes into the February expiration. If gold pulls back on the CPI on Thursday perhaps there will be a chance to try the calls. Mentally I'm feeling OK. The VIX was lower today and finally made it through the 50 day moving average. Still above 20 though. Short term oversold here as well. If we make it through 20 then I'll be back in the bullish camp despite being oversold. If the 20 level holds then we'll see some more selling and the SPY put idea will work. It's a matter of the market deciding what it wants to do here. Europe and Asia were generally higher in last nights trade. We'll see how things go tomorrow.