Bulls and bears trading left jabs, and the black boxes just doing what they do, churning the market based on inputs of geopolitical and geo-financial (it's not a word, I know) angst and inflammatory headlines.  All while a group of interest rate manipulators huddle to try to find the ‘just right' (ref: Goldilocks) statement to put together tomorrow.

I have one tech company up 5% and the other down 5%. But cash is by far my best holding right now.

As a decidedly non-committed bear I took my own advice and covered all short positions as SPY hit target. I managed some nice bear trades and still managed to lose money on balance so far this week. That argues to me that I am not smarter than the market this week and thus, should act accordingly.

As for gold and gold miners, I really don't know right now.  My already small exposure was eliminated on the pop after yesterday's breakdowns.  But I tell you folks, if I see the combination of weakening forward-looking data (I could not care less about November's ‘jobs' or Industrial Production) and commodities continuing to implode relative to gold, I for one will be on high alert.  Also, it's a prime tax loss selling week.  So how real or materially important is that selling in the miners, other than to provide a potential trading opportunity?

Bigger picture, the final piece of the puzzle for gold bugs is the US economy and its headline stock indexes. This is a very interesting, no compelling market environment for geeks who live for this stuff. Certain markets and ratios are blowing off (up and down) and it is really fascinating.  Something seems about to change after these terminal moves blow out (cue Silver 2011 reference).

Note: btw, volatility aside, the stock market has not at all broken its short-term downtrend.