Seems like GDX and GDXJ are having a lot of trouble breaking through resistance. I won't buy GDXJ until it can break and hold the $29 level. Some of the individual juniors like Brazil Resources and Callinex look promising so long as gold moves higher.

Silver is doing well today, but the silver miners (ie. First Majestic, Silver Wheaton, etc.) are getting a royal smack down.

To make it even scarier, more people are just one step away from their own personal financial disaster. A health problem, a car problem, or a leak in the basement could finish them. I remember when consumer debt meant that more people were confident in the economy and spending more on TV's, furniture, etc. Now that paying bills with credit cards and struggling to just make ends meet.

Monetary policy itself will likely face headwinds in the near future : Brexit, declining corporate earnings and revenues, etc. Central banks are about out of ammo. It will be a huge embarasment to the Fed if they have to desperately seek out new ways to keep the economy from doing a nosedive.

With the exception of capitalizing on the possibility of a minor pullback, why on earth would anyone short gold and/or gold miners? Anyone who followed Goldman Sach's suggestion months ago got burned. With the weakening dollar and the Fed in full dove mode, gold has a lot of room to run higher.

Add Rickards to a list of permabears whose advice should be taken with a grain of salt. $10,000 gold is highly unlikely. This kind of stuff is porn for the doom and gloom crowd that stockpile PM's, ammo, and food that will last for 50 years.

Shorting the gold miners is the last thing I would be doing. Everyone who has done it this year has been wrong. Gold and miners may have a lot more upside before any kind of meaningful pullback.

I have never been able to comprehend how these alogtraders can manipulate the market the way they do. Algos have always been a mysterious concept to me, much like the Plunge Protection Team. It's almost like a ghost that you know is in the room but cannot see exactly what it's doing. And I'm more afraid of algos than ghosts!

It seems like people are now programmed to "buy the dip" at all costs. Now that the market is getting overbought, I keep thinking there has to be a decent pullback on the way soon.

The bulls continue to talk up the market and explain away the declining volume (lowest volume day of the year today). I can't imagine why anyone would want to be building or adding to long positions at this point. I bought puts on SPY today; the rest of my account is cash. I'll wait as long as I have to see real meaningful improvement in this economy before I start putting money to work.