The markets traded up from the open this morning, but after about two hours, they turned downward and didn't look back. The SPX closed at $1074 after dropping almost $11 today. The S&P 500 is now down almost 7% since its 52 week high earlier this month. RUT closed at $602, a drop of almost $6; RUT is down a little over 7% since its 52 week high a couple of weeks ago. The major indexes had their worst monthly decline since February of 2009. All of this market carnage occurred in the face of a better than expected fourth quarter GDP report of an annualized rate of 5.7% (the street expected 4.7%). Some of the CNBC talking heads cite worries about European financial problems; the dollar traded higher, at least in part due to relative strength to the Euro.

My Feb RUT iron condor now stands almost perfectly centered at plus or minus one standard deviation with a P/L of +$1,660, delta = +$21 and theta = +$162. You can see the theta starting to build now that we are down to 20 days to expiration. The drop in RUT late today pushed my Mar RUT iron condor to the edge of adjustment; if RUT doesn't rally Monday, I will be adjusting this position. It now stands at near breakeven, delta = +$31 and theta = +$72. There is a good lesson here. We have had a significant correction this month, but neither of our condors are bleeding red ink. That is because we didn't just sit and hope it would turn around. The iron condor will eat your lunch if you don't actively manage the position.