We saw some selling to end the month of January as the Dow fell 179 points on very heavy volume. The advance/declines were negative. The summation index is still in a sideways pattern. The NASDAQ led the way lower again and that is not a positive. The S&P 500 had a modest loss but again finished off of the worst levels on the session. The short term indicators here are rolling over but some remain in overbought territory. The question is are they rolling over to start a significant decline or are we going to bounce back to new all time highs? The NASDAQ daily chart has a more bearish look to it and is usually the leader. I'll ponder the possibilities this weekend. Gold got beaten to death as players headed to the exits. The gold futures lost $470 today to close back below $5000. Silver fell over 25%. In one day. The parabolic moves never end well. They are violent on the upside and equally severe going down. Take a look at the gold or silver weekly and monthly candlestick charts to get a view. My guess is that there will be more downside to follow. We will still be looking at the GDX puts on any near term rally before the February option expiration. The US dollar was higher and interest rates finished mixed. The XAU lost over 54 points and GDX fell 13 3/4. Volume exploded to the downside for the busiest day in years. This is what happens when everybody is trying to get out at the same time. The short term indicators for GDX are heading lower with some already oversold. We will try the GDX February puts on any bounce. Is it possible that gold and silver turn back up and head to new highs soon? I sincerely doubt it. Mentally I'm having mixed feelings. It was good that we were at least on the right track with regards to the gold shares. However not getting filled on the put orders means that the right adjustments were not made and we missed out on what would have been a profitable trade. There are no moral victories in this game. We are here to make money and it is as simple as that. The VIX was higher again which fits a down market. The short term indicators are trending higher with room to go. However there is no conviction with the way they are moving at the moment. Not sure what that means. Asia was lower and Europe higher to close out the week. I'll be checking the charts this weekend as usual. It's Friday afternoon and time for a break.