The stock market exploded to the upside on the open with a huge gap higher as the Dow finished with a gain of 522 points on average volume. The advance/declines were better than 3 to 1 positive. The summation index is moving up. The NASDAQ led the way higher and was up around 2 1/2%. The McClellan oscillator signal a couple of days ago was valid with todays price action. Was today a delayed reaction to yesterdays rate cut, overnight foreign money pouring into the US futures or something option expiration week related? Doesn't matter as price is the ultimate judge. New all time highs in the Dow and the S&P. The S&P 500 remains short term overbought and will be medium term overbought as well after tomorrow. My SPY September puts went from a gain to a loss overnight. I sold them early this morning for a 65% loss. Yesterday it appeared that this trade had things going for it. Overnight it was destroyed. That is the nature of the game sometimes and you have to simply take the loss and move on. Gold was up $14 on the futures. The US dollar was little changed and interst rates finished mixed. The XAU was up 2 1/8, while GDX added back 2/3. Volume was average. The short term indicators for GDX are trying to turn back up. GDX is up against the resistance at the 40 level. My guess is that a pause is due before attempting to clear that area again. Mentally I'm feeling disappointed at yet another losing trade. The short term trades are some of the toughest ones to try but that won't stop us. The VIX was lower and is back below the 50 day moving average. The short term indicators have rolled back over to the downside with room to go. The VIX implies higher stock prices yet to come. Expiration Friday on tap and I'll be looking at the October option cycle for the next trade. Asia and Europe had nice gains overnight as money is finding a home in stocks. We'll close out the trading week tomorrow.