The markets chopped about a bit this morning after disappointing news from the ISM manufacturing index; the index declined for Feb and was lower than expected. But it didn't take long for the market to get over that disappointment and then it traded pretty steadily upward the balance of the session. Trading volume was mixed but generally lower: down about 8% on NYSE, up about 11% on NASDAQ, but it remained below the 50 day moving average on the S&P 500. RUT traded up over $14 to close at $643. The SPX closed at $1116, up a little over $11. The SPX close is right at resistance, whereas RUT clearly broke through resistance and is closing on its 52 week high at $649. Another remarkable aspect of today's strong market - this all happened as the dollar was trading higher.

Today's strength necessitated some adjustments to my Mar iron condors. I bought two Apr $660 calls for $8.50 to protect my call spreads. I also closed my 570/580 put spreads for $0.35 (a gain of $900) and rolled up to 590/600 for $0.60. So the Mar position now stands at a net loss of $2,080 and position delta = -$71 and theta = +$178. This trade is struggling to break even at this point; absent a pull back, we may be simply holding our losses to a minimum.

The April iron condor stands at a P/L of -$60, delta = -$93 and theta = +$89. The delta of the short $680 calls is up to 17, nearing the area for adjustment.

Now the big question: is this market going to push to new highs as RUT appears to be doing or drop back within the trading range as it appears the S&P 500 is doing?