Good to hear from you Ryan - you have been away too long.

First, just so you know where I'm coming from, I disagree with Peter's market top call. I believe the current bull market runs at least until the spring, and maybe as long as a year after that. Peter recommends bear call spreads (sell a call option, buy a cheaper out of the money call option). I'm avoiding options plays right now because I think there's a lot of money to be made in Venture stocks - at least until January.

However, during last summer when the market was in consolidation mode, I did very well playing a strangle on GDX. You sell both a call and a put on GDX (about $2 out of the money & one month out) and collect 2 premiums. I did this for several months until the gold stocks started to break out of consolidation mode. I would only try this on an ETF rather than an individual stock, because a large sudden move would kill you (ETFs don't get bought out or declare bankrupcy).