Sellers were back today as the Dow fell 112 points on good volume. The advance/declines were negative. The summation index is still meandering in a sideways channel. We were off by 400 during the session so it could have been worse. Volume was lighter today so perhaps the selling will take a break tomorrow. The NASDAQ was the leader to the downside though and that's not a plus. The S&P 500 short term indicators are back to mid-range so we could go either way here. The inflation data was about in line with what was expected. I'm now looking at both the puts and calls for the SPY with just over a week to go in the March option cycle. We are still at the mercy of headline risk. Gold was up around a dozen on the futures. The US dollar was higher along with interest rates. The XAU climbed 3, while GDX gained 3/4. Volume was back to average which is lighter than it's been. We got the expected bounce up for GDX from the inflation data early on and I sold the March calls there for about a 135% profit. This was a short term trade that worked out and I might try it again next week ahead of the producer price report. GDX does however remain both short and medium term overbought but that doesn't mean that it can't go higher. These are not normal market times. Mentally I'm feeling OK. Trying to guard against being overconfident just because we had a winning trade. The VIX was lower today and the short term indicators here have turned back down. Still above the 30 level though and not close to the 50 day moving average yet. Not sure what to make of it since being lower for the VIX along with lower stock prices doesn't fit the usual pattern. I suppose we'll continue to wait and see if the S&P 500 can make it back to the down trend line that now comes in at 4400. Trying the SPY puts there makes sense for now. The 50 day moving average is about to cross below the 200 day moving average for the S&P. That is a long term sell signal. Most of the other major indicaes have already done this including the Dow. Asia was higher and Europe lower last night. We'll close out the trading week tomorrow.