Higher prices to begin the week as the Dow gained 515 points on heavy volume. The advance/declines were positive. The summation index continues sideways. The Dow led the way today and that isn't the most bullish scenario. Both the NASDAQ and S&P 500 posted modest gains. Most of the short term indicators remain overbought for the S&P. Not sure where it is heading next but it is on the cusp of a new all time high. We were waiting for Fridays jobs report but it now is delayed due to another Federal government shut down. Not sure when it will be coming out. Waiting on the next signal for trading the SPY options. Gold dropped $62 on the futures. The US dollar was higher along with interest rates. The XAU was off 1 1/2 and GDX lost 1/4. Volume remains heavy here. The short term indicators for GDX are still moving down with some already oversold. We are waiting for a bounce in the gold shares to try the GDX February puts. The gold shares lost around 17% from the high to the low in two days to end last week. Hoping for some kind of bounce off of that but we may just see a grind lower as well. Not expecting gold itself to make it back the the all time high anytime soon. Mentally I'm feeling OK. The VIX was lower today and the daily candlestick chart looks like it wants to go lower. The short term indicators here are now heading down. This would bode well for stocks in the near term but we'll have to wait and see. Really need to see the NASDAQ get going to the upside for the bulls to be in charge. Europe was higher and Asia lower with the exception of India to begin the week. We'll see how things go tomorrow.