Volatility took over today as we opened with a huge gap down, came all the way back to show a nice gain only to fall back again and then drift in the final hour. The Dow lost 11 points on good volume. The advance/declines were negative. The summation index is tracking sideways. The NASDAQ and S&P 500 posted small losses. The S&P 500 is finding stiff resistance at the short term down trend line that comes in around 5700. It has tried and failed three times there this week. This is something that I did not expect as perhaps things are weaker than they seem to me. The short term indicators are moving sideways on the S&P. I'm still holding on to the March SPY calls but with only a Friday trading session left this trade is now looking like it won't work. It's now showing a loss. We'll see how things go tomorrow. Gold was up a dozen on the futures. The US dollar was higher and interest rates finished flat. The XAU and GDX were both little changed on very light volume. GDX remains short term overbought. Mentally I'm feeling OK. The VIX bounced around but ended the day barely lower. Some of its short term indicators have reached oversold territory. I'm not sure what's next for the VIX. Not sure what's next for the market but with that down trend line holding on perhaps we're in for a retest of the recent lows. That would kill my SPY call trade tomorrow. However markets go where they want so we'll have to wait and see. Europe and Asia finished lower with the exception of India. Expiration Friday on tap.