A mixed bag today with the Dow up and the overall market lower. The most watched index rose 51 points on heavy volume. The advance/declines were positive. The summation index is trying to stabalize. The NASDAQ led the way lower, off 1 1/4%. The S&P 500 was down 36 points but did come back from the lows on the session. The short term indicators here have now turned down with plenty of room to go lower. The market is trying to figure out what it wants to do. No SPY options trades in mind right now. Gold found a bid with China returning to the market after a holiday as the futures rose $15. The US dollar and interest rates were slightly lower. The XAU climbed 5 points, while GDX added 1 1/3. Volume was light. The short term indicators for GDX have turned up but remain oversold. I'm still considering the GDX November calls but will most likely wait for next weeks inflation data to get out of the way before purchase. Mentally I'm feeling a bit tired. The VIX was higher today and that fits with an overall down market. The short term indicators here are trending higher but without conviction for now. I'm not exactly sure what the market wants to do here as we still have conflicting short and longer term signals. Never an easy game plus my take on things hasn't been solid lately. We keep moving on though. I'll probably let Friday go by and regroup over the weekend. Asia and Europe were down again in last nights trade. We'll close out the week tomorrow.