Trading started in positive territory this morning, but within an hour, it had turned negative. The Russell 2000 Index (RUT) traded downward most of the day and recovered some during the last hour of trading but closed down at $587, just above the support level broken yesterday. The S&P 500 (SPX) also traded up initially and then downward all day. But the SPX regained all of its losses in the last hour to close virtually unchanged at $1093, just below the strong resistance at $1100.

My Dec iron condor was helped somewhat by the modest pullback on RUT to close with a P/L of -$10, delta = -$13 and theta = +$77. I still need the protection of the Jan $630 calls since my Dec $630 calls still have a delta of 20. It may prove difficult for SPX to break $1100 and RUT to break the resistance at $625 set with the double top in September and October. The markets may well trade in this range for a while. But this market has been proving everyone wrong of late, so be sure your contingency orders are in place.