After a day of choppy back and forth trading, the markets closed essentially unchanged on lower trading volume. The SPX closed at $1108 with a decline of less than a dollar, while the RUT closed at $632, up less than a dollar. The SPX appears to be caught in the same consolidation range of $1100 to $1116 as it was from mid-November to mid-December last year. Bernanke's testimony later this week could jolt the market out of this trading range, but I would be surprised if he says anything new.

My March iron condor on RUT stands at a P/L of -$1,540 with a position delta of -$10, and theta = +$115. We will initiate our April positions later this week. I considered selling the April hedges today, but decided we need that protection until we get a least some minimal pullback in RUT. So far, it seems to be stubbornly moving higher, just very slowly.