The markets opened up strong this morning but the existing home sales report at 10 am this morning sent the markets downward (Dec sales down 17%). The markets recovered from that through the balance of the day, but selling during the last hour of trading erased many of the gains. The SPX rose $5 to close at $1097 while the RUT was nearly unchanged at $518. The VIX pulled back to 25%. Trading volume was generally below recent averages, so the market's participants do not appear to be fully convicted in either direction.

Friday left my condors in need of some adjustment and initially this morning it appeared that might not be necessary. But later in the morning, I decided to make some changes. I left the Feb RUT iron condors as they were because the overall delta of the position was not really out too far. That position now stands at a net profit of $1,700, delta = +$46, and theta = +$73. The delta of the Feb $570 puts is now just under 16 - not too bad, but still close to my adjustment trigger. I considered several different adjustments to the Mar RUT iron condor but settled on adding ten more contracts of the 560/570 puts at $1.75 and ten more call spreads at 670/680 for $1.45. Thus, my Mar condor now consists of ten 690/700 calls, and ten 670/680 calls, and twenty 560/570 put spreads with a total P/L of -$20, delta = -$14 and theta = +$57. The balance of the week is loaded with economic reports and earnings announcements, so it is unlikely this market is just going to trade sideways. If you are unable to watch the market throughout the day, you might consider moving up your stop losses to be even more conservative given the recent volatility.