The promising uptrend begun via a short-squeeze thrust on October 28 looks close to sputtering out, but we’ll reserve judgment until we’ve seen how GDX performs on retracements. The current one should go no further than 20.14 if we are to assume the best, but certainly no lower than 19.58 if the two-week-old bull trend is to stay alive. The best place to attempt bottom-fishing today lies along the path lower, however, at 20.43. Officially, we’ll do so by buying two December 23 calls, stop 20.29, when the stock reaches the target. At the moment, I cannot estimate within 5 cents how much the calls should be selling for with the stock trading around 20.43, but keep your bulletin launcher switched on if you’re interested in the trade, since I’ll put out price guidance in real time if it looks like it could be crucially useful._______ UPDATE We stopped ourselves out of the calls for a small loss when the stock dipped 15 cents below our buying point. GDX is tenuously holding above 20.14, having touched a low today of 20.10. A two-day close below the support would be a serious negative for the near term, but in any event, GDX apears to be fighting for its life.