Stocks moved higher to end the week as the Dow gained 208 points on good volume. The advance/declines were positive. The summation index continues sideways. The Dow led the way up and that isn't the most bullish scenario. The S&P 500 along with the NASDAQ continue to set new records. The S&P continues to be short term overbought. I did place an order overnight for the SPY August puts and I'm leaving it out there. It will take some more gains to get filled and perhaps that will happen early next week. I would like to own the puts ahead of the Fed announcement on Wednesday but markets rarely cooperate. Gold lost $33 on the futures. The US dollar was higher and interest rates finished slightly lower. The XAU and GDX had fractional gains on better than average volume. Gold down and the gold shares up is generally a positive for the gold share indices. Todays gains there were basically driven by a good earnings report from NEM. The short term indicators for GDX are starting to turn back up and they are not yet completely overbought. Mentally I'm feeling OK. The VIX is still moving lower and is now oversold on a short term basis. It can stay that way during rallies like the one we're in right now. The VIX closed below the 15 level. It still implies higher stock prices in the near term. Then why attempt the SPY puts you may ask? The VIX is one of several indicators that I follow. We are getting at least a short term sell signal from some of them. That doesn't mean that we'll see some type of collapse but it does mean that there may be a chance for some short term profits to the downside. We'll see. I'll be going over the charts this weekend as usual to try and figure out what to do. Europe and Asia were lower to end the week. Plenty to keep an eye on in the coming days. It's Friday afternoon and time for a break.

Another mixed picture today as the Dow fell 316 points on heavy volume. The advance/declines were almost 2 to 1 negative. The summation index is moving sideways. Both the NASDAQ and S&P 500 had slight gains but were higher during the session. Running in place would be an apt description for the overall market. I thought that the Dow would follow through today to new all time highs but that wasn't the case. The S&P 500 remains short term overbought on the indicators and is due for some kind of selling here. I still favor the SPY August puts at some point. Gold was off $23 today. The US dollar was higher along with interest rates. The XAU was down 2 1/4 and GDX lost 1/2. Volume was light. The short term indicators for GDX are trying to roll over. Mentally I'm feeling OK. The VIX finished flat today and is hugging its lower Bollinger band line. Short term oversold here. Not sure exactly what to expect next with this indicator. Almost done with this week and that was one of the goals to try to do before the next trade. We've got the Fed, inflation data and the jobs report next week so things will be moving. Throw in earnings reports and the August 1st tariff deadline as well. So it should be quite a week for the markets. Europe and Asia were up with the exceptions of India and France. We'll close out the trading week tomorrow.

Stocks took off to the upside today as the Dow gained 507 points on heavy volume. The advance/declines were 2 to 1 positive. The summation index is moving sideways. The Dow is now within striking distance of reaching a new all time high. It would join the NASDAQ and the S&P 500. The S&P remains short term overbought. We are getting a short term sell signal from one of our indicators. Lately however it has taken a couple of days after getting the signal for stocks to head lower. And they haven't gone that far down when they do start to drop. I'm still willing to try the SPY August puts here soon though. Gold dropped $42 on the futures today. The US dollar was lower again but interest rates moved up. The XAU dipped 2 1/3 and GDX slipped about 2/3. Volume was average. Some of the short term indicators for GDX have turned lower but it isn't completely overbought just yet. I'm on the sidelines here for now. Mentally I'm feeling OK. The VIX was lower today and that fits with an upside market. It appears that the converging Bollinger bands have foretold a rally. The short term indicators here are not yet completely oversold so there is probably more room to go to the upside in the near term. Asia and Europe finished higher as the recent tariff news was viewed as positive. A light week for economic data but plenty of earnings news to digest. I'll keep an eye on the overnight developments.

Back and forth today as the Dow managed a gain of 179 points on heavy volume. The advance/declines were better than 2 to 1 positive. The summation index is in a stall with a downwards bias. It was a mixed picture once again as the NASDAQ posted a small loss. The S&P 500 had a slight gain. The short term technical picture on the S&P remains overbought. The Bollinger bands here are beginning to contract. I'm still looking at the SPY August puts as the next trade. Gold was up $37 on the futures. The US dollar was lower again along with interest rates. The XAU rose 5 2/3, while GDX was up 1 1/2. Volume was a bit above average. I have missed the GDX call trade yet again. The short term indicators are not yet completely overbought. They never got to short term oversold but I wasn't able to make an adjustment in my thinking in order to purchase some GDX calls. The floor for GDX was at its 50 day moving average. The move implied by the contracting Bollinger bands is to the upside. Gold continues to draw interest for traders and investors. Mentally I'm feeling OK. The VIX was slightly lower today. The short term indicators are beginning to trend sideways but are not completely oversold. The Bollinger bands here are about as tight as they can get. Something big is about to happen with this indicator. Volatility is about to really increase leading to a decline or the VIX will continue to trend lower leading to a sharp rally. We will see. Asia was generally higher and Europe generally lower overnight. We'll see what happens tomorrow.

We had a nice intra-day rally going on but then sellers showed up to spoil things. The Dow had a downside reversal as it opened higher and closed lower. It fell 19 points on heavy volume. The advance/declines were slightly negative. The summation index continues to stall and is trending lower. Both the NASDAQ and S&P 500 posted gains and closed at new all time highs. The NASDAQ led the way but along with the S&P fell well off from the highs on the session. The short term indicators on the S&P remain overbought. I do want to own some SPY puts at some point during the August option cycle. Premiums for now remain high. Ideally I'd like to get the puts ahead of the Fed announcement next week. The market may not cooperate though. Gold rallied fifty bucks to begin the week. The US dollar was lower along with interest rates. The XAU gained 7 1/8, while GDX climbed over 1 3/4. Volume was a bit above average. The short term indicators for GDX have turned up. Could this be the beginning of a move higher implied by the contracting Bollinger bands on the daily chart? Should we now just jump into the GDX August calls? Always plenty of questions in the game without clear answers until everybody else sees them. Mentally I'm feeling OK. The VIX was higher today which doesn't fit an upside market. The Bollinger bands here are getting very tight which tells me that something is about to erupt here. The VIX is already pretty low so my guess would be we are about to see volatility return with a vengeance. I could be wrong. Perhaps we'll see a sharp rally instead. Either way something is about to happen here. Europe finished sightly higher and Asia was up with the exception of Japan. I'll keep an eye on the overnight headlines.

Expiration Friday turned into a day of just hanging around as the Dow fell 142 points on heavy volume. The advance/declines were negative. The summation index has stalled. It was a mixed picture as the NASDAQ posted a slight gain and the S&P was basically unchanged. It felt like a mid-summer trading day. The S&P has moved sideways for two weeks and remains short term overbought. I'm considering the SPY August puts at some point in the near future. Gold rose $8 on the futures. The US dollar was lower along with interest rates. The XAU and GDX had fractional losses on light volume. GDX continues to hang around its 50 day moving average. Mentally I'm feeling OK. The VIX was slightly lower. The short term indicators here are moving lower but not yet oversold. The Bollinger bands here are starting to move closer together. We are moving into the August option cycle so premiums will be high. No clear signal on what to do next right now. Still at the mercy of the next headline as earnings reports are due. I'll try and remain patient for the next signal. Checking the charts over the weekend as usual. We don't want to force things just for the sake of making a trade. Europe and Asia finished mixed to close out the week. It's Friday afternoon and time for a break.

Moving higher as the Dow gained 229 points on heavy volume. The advance/declines were 2 to 1 positive. The summation index is tracking sideways. Both the NASDAQ and the S&P 500 closed at new all time highs. There is no overhead resistance. Remaining short term overbought for the S&P which has been the case for weeks. This will end and we certainly want to own some SPY puts when it does. But markets can stay overbought for extended periods of time and that is what we are seeing now. I am considering owning some SPY puts at some point in the August option cycle. Gold was off $14 on the futures but did come up from the lows on the session. The US dollar was higher while interest rates finished flat. The XAU fell 1 1/2 and GDX dropped 5/8. Volume was light. GDX is still flirting with its 50 day moving average. The short term indicators here have now turned down. Mentally I'm feeling OK. The VIX was lower and the short term indicators here have rolled over. The VIX still implies higher stock prices to come in the near term. The Bollinger bands on this indicator are beginning to converge here. Asia was mixed and Europe higher overnight. We'll close out the week with expiration Friday tomorrow.

Selling in the morning and buying in the afternoon. The Dow gained 231 points on heavy volume. The advance/declines were positive. The summation index is starting to head sideways. The Dow was the leader today. The PPI data was lighter than expected which was the opposite of what I thought would happen. Regardless, sellers took over early before buyers surfaced for the rest of the day. The SPY July put idea is now over and we'll look to the August option cycle for the next trade. The S&P 500 is still short term overbought and I still like the idea of the index puts but we'll let the rest of this week pass before trying that. Gold was up $18 on the futures. The US dollar was lower and so were interest rates. The XAU and GDX had slight fractional moves either way on light volume. The Bollinger bands on the gold share indices still imply a big move coming for this group soon. Perhaps we'll just jump on board when it occurs instead of trying to figure out which way it will go. Mentally I'm feeling OK. The VIX was lower today after making it up through its 50 day moving average early on. This implies lower near term VIX readings and higher stock prices. We'll see. The short term indicators are still at the mid-range level. The market is still at the mercy of the next headline and we are into earnings season once again. Asia and Europe closed generally lower. We'll see what tomorrow brings.

Lower to mixed today as the Dow fell 436 points on heavy volume. The advance/declines were 4 to 1 negative. The summation index is beginning to stall. The NASDAQ posted a small gain today while the S&P 500 had a modest loss. We opened with a gap higher as the inflation data came in where expected and NVDA had some positive news overnight. The rest of the session was met with selling. I did consider placing an order overnight for the SPY July puts but did not. It would not have gotten filled anyway even with the early gains at the price I was looking to pay. Another missed opportunity. I'm expecting the PPI to come in higher than expected tomorrow but we'll see. The short term indicators for the S&P 500 are now beginning to roll over but still remain overbought. Gold dropped $22 on the futures. The US dollar continues higher along with interest rates. The XAU fell three points and GDX lost over 3/4. Volume was average. GDX tested its 50 day moving average again and bounced off of it. The short term indicators are back at mid-range. The Bollinger bands continue to converge as to imply that the next move here will be big. Which way is the question. Mentally I'm feeling OK. The VIX was only slightly higher today. The short term indicators are still heading higher. I'm not sure what's next for the VIX. It appears that I've missed the SPY put trade with 3 days to go in the July option cycle. It would have been pretty risky but risk is part of the game. We'll keep our eyes open for the next perceived opportunity. Asia up and Europe down overnight. I'll keep an eye on the overnight headlines.

A one day upside reversal to begin the week as we opened lower and closed higher. The Dow rose 88 points on good volume. The advance/declines were slightly positive. The summation index is still trending higher. The NASDAQ led the way higher and closed at a new high but the gains overall were small. Waiting on inflation data tomorrow. The S&P 500 remains short term overbought. If we get upside there tomorrow I may try the SPY July puts ahead of the PPI due out on Wednesday. It would be a pretty risky trade with only a few days left in the July option cycle so we'll see. Gold lost ten bucks on the futures. The US dollar was higher and interest rates finished flat. The XAU and GDX had fractional moves on light volume. Both finished well off of the highs for the session. GDX remains in a channel and the Bollinger bands are still tight. Mentally I'm feeling OK. The VIX was up today which doesn't fit with a positive market. The short term indicators here have now turned higher. Not sure what the VIX is implying from here. Where we go in the short term will be influenced by the CPI and PPI in the coming days. Tariff noise seems to be getting discounted for now. The S&P has been overbought for quite a while and that won't last forever. Asia and Europe started the week mixed. We'll see how markets react to the inflation data tomorrow.

Selling from the start as we had a huge gap lower at the open and spent the rest of the day trying to come back. The Dow fell 279 points on good volume. The advance/declines were better than 2 to 1 negative. The summation index is still moving up. The Dow led the way down. The S&P 500 remains short term overbought but todays price action may put our SPY July put idea on hold as we have already started to move lower. I'll take a look at things over the weekend and go from there. Gold was up $46 on the futures. The US dollar was higher along with interest rates. The XAU was up 3 1/8, while GDX gained 1/2. Volume was about average. The short term indicators for GDX continue to be at mid-range but they are heading higher. It is a tough trading environment as we are still at the mercy of the next tariff headline. Which could be positive or negative. Mentally I'm feeling OK. The VIX was up today which fits with a down market. Still short term oversold here. I don't have a good idea of what's next for the VIX. I guess we'll have to let the weekend go by and see where we go on Monday morning. It may be that we will have to let another option cycle go by without a trade but I don't really want to do that. I'll go over the charts this weeknd and try to figure something out. Asia was mixed and Europe lower to close out the trading week. It's Friday afternoon and time for a break.

Drifting higher today as the Dow gained 192 points on heavy volume. The advance/declines were 2 to 1 positive. The summation index is moving up. The Dow led things today and that isn't the most bullish scenario. Things would have been higher but we had a late mini sell off. The NASDAQ and S&P 500 closed at new all time highs. There is once again no overhead resistance. The S&P 500 remains short term overbought. Our next trade will be trying the SPY July puts ahead of the inflation data next week if we continue to the upside before Tuesday. Markets rarely cooperate. Gold was up $14 on the futures. The US dollar was slightly higher and interest rates finished little changed. The XAU rose two points and GDX was up 1/3. Volume was light. Some of the short term indicators for GDX are at mid-range. It's hard for me to figure out which way the gold shares are going to go from here so I'll remain on the sidelines for now. Mentally I'm feeling OK. The VIX was a bit lower today and continues to be short term oversold. I'm hoping it will stay down for a couple of more days but markets and indicators go where they will. Running out of time in the July option cycle with only six days left. The risk on any July cycle trade going forward will be high. Europe and Asia were mixed in last nights trade. We'll close out the week tomorrow.

Back to the upside today as the Dow gained 213 points on good volume. The advance/declines were positive. The summation index is moving up. The NASDAQ led the way higher and that is a plus for the bulls. The short term indicators for the S&P 500 remain overbought. My SPY July put order came within a tick of being filled this morning and then I canceled it. It appears to me that the couple days of selling that we just saw will be it for now and the S&P 500 will probably go on to new all time highs again soon. I could be wrong. I may try the SPY put idea again early next week if we continue higher from here. The up trend line from the beginning of April remains intact on the S&P daily chart. Gold was up $6 on the futures. The US dollar finished flat again and interest rates moved lower. The XAU rose 2 2/3 and GDX added 2/3. Volume was average. Some of the short term indicators for GDX are turning back up. GDX has held in here at its lower Bollinger band and its 50 day moving average. If it makes it down to the up trend line at 49 perhaps I'll consider the August calls at that level. It continues to be overbought on a weekly basis. Mentally I'm feeling OK. The VIX was lower today which fits an upside market. Still short term oversold here. The VIX is well below 20 and trending towards 15. A move down to that level would be supportive for stocks and lead to more new all time highs in my opinion. I'm guessing that's what we'll see here in the coming days. The NASDAQ got there today. Asia was lower with the exception of Japan and Europe higher overnight. We'll keep an eye on the overnight developments.

A summer day of hanging around as the Dow fell 165 points on heavy volume. The advance/declines were positive. The summation index continues higher. The NASDAQ had a slight gain and the S&P 500 a slight loss. The S&P remains short term overbought. My open order is still out there for the SPY July puts but I may cancel it soon. No real downside follow through in the overall market to yesterdays drop. Gold dropped thirty bucks on the futures. The US dollar finished flat as did interest rates. The XAU fell 9 3/4, while GDX slid 2 3/8. Volume was heavy to the downside. Yesterday I thought that we'd missed out on the gold share calls and today we are glad that we didn't purchase any. Not sure what's going on here but a longer term up trend line for GDX comes in now at 49. As always markets know more than we do. Mentally I'm feeling OK. The VIX was lower today and remains short term oversold. Not sure what's next for the VIX. Asia and Europe were both higher as the tariffs have been postponed once again. Busy day for me today so the blog is a little short. We'll see what tomorrow brings.

Sellers returned today as tariff turmoil returned and the Dow fell 451 points on heavy volume. The advance/declines were shy of 4 to 1 negative. The summation index is still moving up. The Dow barely led things lower. We were looking for some type of decline and we saw it today. I canceled my open order for the SPY July puts that wasn't filled on Thursday and replaced it with another at a different strike price. My hope is that we see a light volume up move from here back to the recent new high and roll over from there. The S&P 500 remains short term overbought despite todays drop. Gold finished up $6 coming back from early selling. The US dollar was higher along with interest rates. The XAU was up 2 1/4, while GDX added almost 1/4. Volume was average. The gold shares opened lower and closed higher for a one day upside reversal. The short term indicators for GDX are moving higher with room to go and tight Bollinger bands. Perhaps the gold share calls were the way to go today. Mentally I'm feeling OK. The VIX gapped higher today and the short term indicators turned up. Still short term oversold here though. I do not think that todays price action is the start of a sustained decline just yet. But I could be wrong. I would like to see sideways to higher price action from here to try the SPY July puts before expiration. However markets rarely cooperate. Not a lot of economic data out this week. We will probably just move from tariff headline to headline. Asia was generally lower and Europe higher to begin the week. I'll keep an eye on the overnight news.

The employment report came in better than expected and stocks took off to the upside as the Dow gained 344 points in a shortened pre-holiday session. The advance/declines were better than 2 to 1 positive. Volume was light. The summation index is moving up. The NASDAQ continues to lead the way higher and that's a plus. The short term technical picture for the S&P hasn't changed. Overbought, staying that way and now getting extreme. Back above the upper Bollinger band. This one reason why I still favor the SPY puts for now. But this may be a fools errand as the rally goes on. I'll figure out what to do over the long weekend. My SPY July put order is still out there but another positive session would most likely fill it. Gold dipped $16 on the futures. the US dollar was higher along with interest rates. The XAU added 1 3/8 and GDX was up 1/8. Volume was very light. The short term technical indicators for GDX remain at mid-range. No GDX trades for me here at the moment. Mentally I'm feeling OK. The VIX was still lower today and remains short term oversold. Its 50 day moving average is about to cross the 200 day to the downside. This would imply lower VIX readings and higher stock prices. I'll be going over the charts this weekend to try and figure out what to do with two weeks remaining in the July option cycle. Asia markets contiue to be mixed while Europe finished higher. It's Thursday and time to take a break during the long holiday weekend.

The overall market conitinued to rise today but the Dow dipped 10 points on heavy volume. The advance/declines were better than 2 to 1 positive. The summation index is moving up. We are in summer rally mode despite the mixed picture of the last two days. The NASDAQ took the lead higher today. The S&P 500 remains short term overbought. Only a half day trading tomorrow with the employment report out early in the morning. My guess is that many traders have already left for the holiday weekend so the price action tomorrow could be skewed. I still have my order out there for the SPY July puts but it may be time to rethink this idea. Markets can stay overbought for extended periods of time during good rallies. The S&P continues to hug its upper Bollinger band. Gold was up $19 on the futures. The US dollar was barely lower and interest rates were up a bit. The XAU rose 3 1/4, while GDX added about 2/3. Volume was light. The short term indicators for GDX are now pointing up at the mid-range level. The tight Bollinger bands imply some type of decent move coming soon. At this point it appears that move will be to the upside. Mentally I'm feeling OK. The VIX was lower today which fits with an overall higher market. Still short term oversold here. Asia continues to be mixed and Europe was higher again with the exception of the FTSE. We'll see how the holiday mode market reacts to the jobs report tomorrow.

Kind of a mixed bag today as the Dow gained 400 points on pretty heavy volume. The advance/declines were 3 to 1 positive. The summation index is moving up. Both the NASDAQ and S&P 500 posted losses on the day with the NASDAQ having a decent decline. We received another signal last night from the McClellan oscillator for a big move within the next two days. We got an outsized move from the Dow today but not the overall market. The indicators for the S&P 500 remain overbought. The 50 day moving average is moving up through the 200 day on the S&P daily chart. That is a longer term positive for this index. I'm leaving my open order out there for the SPY July puts. Gold was up forty bucks on the futures. The US dollar was a bit lower and interest rates a bit higher. The XAU had a fractional gain and GDX finished flat. Volume was about average. Gold up forty and the gold shares just hanging around is not a positive. The short term indicators on GDX are now tracking sideways. Mentally I'm feeling OK. The VIX was up slightly today and remains short term oversold. Not sure what's in store next for the VIX. Only a day and half of trading left this week in the US. Jobs report due Thursday. Asia continues to be mixed and Europe was lower with the exception of the FTSE. I'll keep an eye on the overnight developments.