Volatility is the key word for this week. Markets have been all over the place as traders take off positions and scramble to find new opportunity for their newly freed up cash. As this happens, overall trading volume has spiked causing wider than normal trading ranges. With little news on the schedule it seems this new volatility is here to stay until everyone get's re-positioned.

Starting with the S&P 500 (SPY  ) where we saw a massive 2.3% decline on Friday almost get completely erased on Monday. By Tuesday traders reversed course again almost erasing Monday's gains. This back and forth activity was met with well above average volume and volatility.

The Nasdaq 100 (QQQ  ) shows a similar performance yet Tuesday has been a little stronger thanks to some Nasdaq names like Apple (AAPL  ) which saw some good news Tuesday. Still, the volatility and back and forth movement remains with above average volume.

The retail sector (XRT  ) continues its near term slide now down over 6% from its most recent high set back on August 23rd. Buyers continue to take their shots at buying this pullback but have been unsuccessful.

What once was a slow and steady rally in the Semiconductor space (SMH  ) has become what many traders are calling a top. After a year long, 26% rally the semiconductor sector has fallen over 6% just on the past few days as traders run for the exits.

Gold (GLD  ) has remained rather stable during all of this. Staying in a range near its highs gold hasn't seen much trading volume or volatility. Although it has a small decline on the week, it doesn't stand out as anything unusual.

The metals and mining sector (XME  ) can't make the same claim. From this point last week, the metals and mining sector has fallen almost 10%. All of this move happening mostly in the last 4 days. Many gold mining stocks have had amazing years so far and analysts seem to be giving this pullback a pass at the moment with very little in the way of downgrades or pricing adjustments.