On Friday, the Labor Department reported a very strong July for the labor market, which increased the probability that the Fed would hike rates this year. This caused gold and gold stocks to decline. Our gold stock indicator became less bullish and we closed out VanEck Vectors Gold Miners ETF (GDX) January 30 call option. We booked a 1.1 percent gain but this was one of our worst trades.

Since we fine-tuned our proprietary indicators in November, 15 of our 18 indicator-based option trades have been winners. Of the 3 trades that were not profitable, one was exactly break even, a second was a -0.3 percent loser, and our worst trade was a 9.5 percent loser. Overall, the 18 trades averaged a gross gain of 21.8 percent over an average holding period of 11 days.

Here are our trade results:
 

• XLE March 72 call: Our oil-stock indicator turned full-on bullish and we recommended this trade on November 3, and closed it out just 1 day later for an incredible 68.5 percent gain just like that.
   
• TLT June 125 call: Recommended buy on January 12 and recommended sell on February 3. In a mere 22 days, this option gained 72.5 percent.
   
• GLD September 117 put: We are major gold bulls for the long run, but it doesn’t mean we cannot also make money when our gold indicator turns bearish. We recommended this put option on February 12 as a short-term hedge against a gold correction and we made an 18.8 percent gain in only 4 days.
   
• UUP June 25 call: A bullish bet on the U.S. dollar, recommended buy on February 19, recommend sell just a week later for a 24.6 percent gain.
   
• SPY June 194 call and SPY July 205 call: Originally recommended on January 12 and rolled over into the SPY July 205 call on March 2, had a compounded gain of 15.3 percent in 57 days.
   
• GLD June 121 put: We listened to our gold indicator again and recommended this put on March 8 and enjoyed a 6.9 percent gain in 1 day.
   
• LNG June 40 call: Though this was not our usual ETF option trade, we recommended a long position on LNG because our oil and oil-stock indicators were positive. In a holding period of less than 2 full days, we realized an 18.9 percent gain. 
   
• SLV September 15 call: After a long period in bearish territory, our silver indicator quickly turned bullish, and on April 5 we recommended this call option. We closed the trade six days later for a 35.8 percent gain.
   
• XLE June 65 call: This was our only losing trade. We recommended the call on March 21 and closed it on April for a 9.5 percent loss.
   
• GDX June 23 put: In a reversal of our usual trade recommendation, we recommended selling to open this put as a bullish bet on gold miners. We closed out the trade in 8 days for an exact break-even return.
   
• GDX July 27 call: Showing that our service is extremely flexible, when our gold-miners indicator turned bearish, we recommended selling to open the GDX July 27 call, betting against gold stocks. In just 1 day, we made a gain of 29.7 percent.
   
• UUP September 24 call: On May 5, we closed out our bullish bet on the greenback for a 24.5% gain in 3 days. Another winner thanks to our dollar indicator.
   
• FCX August 12 call: Our copper indicator was saying "buy." Because there are no liquid copper ETFs, we recommended buying a call option on the stock of the biggest copper company in the world. Bingo! Two days later, we closed the position for an 11.5% gain.
   
• TLT August 130 call: Right before the May jobs report, we closed out this position to reduce risk despite a still bullish bond indicator signal. It turns out we did so prematurely as a shockingly weak May jobs report helped bonds rally. Our return on this trade was a 0.3 percent loss, essentially break even. Had we listened to the indicator, our result on this trade would have been much better!
   
• GDX September 26 call: We achieved a 15.3 percent gain in 7 days. During this period, the S&P 500 suffered its longest losing streak since last August, proving that by following our indicator signals, one could make profitable trades in up or down markets.
   
• GDX September 25 call: On Wednesday, with the U.K. referendum looming, we knew buying a call in the miner ETF would be super risky because the option will likely swing sharply one way or another depending on the result of the vote. But our gold-indicator said buy and we listened. While the S&P 500 fell more 3.6% on the day after the vote, we closed the trade that morning for a cool 55.7% gain in only 2 days.
   
• We are ardent silver bulls, we recommended the silver ETF iShares Silver Trust (SLV) in January. When our silver indicator turned bearish, on June 6 we sold a covered call against our SLV holding to hedge against potential short-term weakness.
  
  Our silver indicator was wrong this time, but because it's a covered call, the loss in the option was offset by the gain in the silver ETF. Last week we closed the entire position for a 3.5 percent gain on the covered call. The entire SLV position gained a net of 18.3 percent--note that in the interest of fairness, for our indicator-based option trades average, we count only the lower 3.5 percent return.