Today's trading was again characterized by slow, choppy action with little overall direction.The SPX closed up over $6 at $1102 while the RUT traded down almost $3 to settle at $595. This market appears to be trapped in this range without sufficient confidence to drive higher, but also without a stimulus to start a downward trend. Most signs of economic recovery are muted, leaving traders without the confidence to buy strongly across the board. Recent unemployment numbers are a good example; a drop from 10.2% to 10.0% was greeted as good news by many, but the reality is that 0.2% in within the error of measurement. It is difficult to draw a confident conclusion one way or the other.

In the meantime, this channel bound market is perfect for my iron condors. The Dec RUT iron condor now stands at +$2,390, delta = -$44 and theta = +$180. Tomorrow I will look hard at closing the 630/640 call spreads, but the 500/510 put spreads will most likely be allowed to expire worthless. The Jan RUT iron condor at 510/520 and 650/660 has 35 days left but is well into the black with a net gain of $1,360, delta = -$33 and a positive theta of $97. Only one more week remains in the December options.