The markets continued higher today with SPX closing up $9 at $2033; RUT wasn't quite so bullish, losing about fifty cents on the day. Volatility continues to contract, with VIX dropping nearly a full point today. VIX has been steadily dropping since its recent high of 28% on September 28th. Trading volume wasn't particularly high on this expiration Friday with 2.3 billion shares of the S&P 500 stocks trading today. Trading volume was up only 1% on the NYSE and moved down 11% on NASDAQ. Many analysts were looking for SPX to definitively break the recent mid-September highs around $2000, and we had our doubts earlier this week, but today's move higher was encouraging. Perhaps we can finally stop worrying about a retest of the flash Monday lows from late August.

Industrial production for September decreased 0.2%, slightly worse than August's -0.1%. Capacity utilization was essentially flat in September at 77.5% (August was 77.8%). The JOLTS job openings data came in at 5.370 million for August down from July's 5.668M. The University of Michigan's consumer sentiment survey reported 92.1 for October, up from September's 87.2.

I closed my November iron condor position on RUT today for a gain of $115 per contract or +13.4%. Even though this is an early close (34 days left), we were able to lock in 82% of the maximum potential gains. Why continue to be exposed to the market if you can lock in over 80% of the potential gains? This brings our year to date returns in the Flying With The Condor™ to +43%.

Enjoy your weekend.