Back and forth today but when it was all said and done the Dow lost 34 points on heavy volume. The advance/declines were slightly negative. The summation index continues lower. We did have a nice gain at some point during the day but could not hold on. The NASDAQ is the relative outperformer right now and that is a step in the right direction for the bulls. We did get a signal from the McClellan oscillator last night for a big move within the next two trading sessions. So we'll see what happens tomorrow. Inflation data on tap and of course the next headline out of the Iran war. The short term indicators for the S&P 500 are hanging around mid-range. Anything could happen as this point which isn't the best trading background for us. We'll stay on the sodelines with regards to the SPY options until we see fit. Gold was up a hundrde bucks on the futures. The US dollar was lower and interest rates finished flat. The XAU rose 6 1/3 and GDX was up 1 1/8. Volume was average. The short term indicators for GDX are trying to bounce from oversold. My open order for the GDX March puts remains out there. The risk for this trade increases with each passing day as time begins to run out for the March option cycle. I still like the idea though. Mentally I'm feeling OK. The VIX was slightly lower today. Its short term indicators are beginning to stall. Still above the 20 level and as long as that is the case volatility will remain. Not sure what's next here. I still think it's wise to keep positions small and time frames shorter than usual in this type of trading environment. Asia and Europe were higher overnight. We'll see how it goes tomorrow.