Another back and forth session with the winding up with a loss of 237 points on good volume. The advance/declines were slightly positive. The summation index is tracking sideways. The big caps led the way lower today. The S&P 500 remains short term oversold. Considering yesterdays debacle the price action wasn't all that bad today. We also have the gyrations of option expiration to get through. My guess is that we're putting in a short term bottom here. We'll know in the coming days. Gold rallied today as the economic data for housing came in weak. The precious metal futures gained $25. The US dollar was lower and interest rates retreated slightly. The XAU climbed 6 1/2 and GDX added about 1 3/4. Volume was good to the upside and perhaps a bottom is now in place. I did place an open order for the GDX June calls overnight but it wasn't filled. Probably too late here and GDX didn't make it down to the 29 level. There is a down trend line in place for GDX and we haven't made it through there yet. Mentally I'm feeling OK. The VIX was lower today which doesn't fit with a down market. The Bollinger bands here are getting closer which implies some kind of big move coming in the VIX. I don't know which way. Interesting times. We'll be moving into the June option cycle next week and premiums will be elevated. On the sidelines for now. Europe and Asia were lower overnight. We'll see how expiration Friday turns out tomorrow.