The markets seemed quiet and cautious as they anticipate the FOMC meeting tomorrow. Trading volume was down about 10% on the NYSE and the NASDAQ. The Empire State Manufacturing Index fell to 22.9 from last month's 24.9 value, and that may have contributed to the market weakness this morning. But the buyers returned to the floor late in the day and drove the markets back up. RUT traded as low as $669, but recovered to close at $674 for a loss of $2. The SPX closed at $1151, essentially unchanged after trading as low as $1141. Tomorrow afternoon's market is likely to be volatile with everyone trying to analyze the Fed's announcement and guess when this period of cheap money is likely to start coming to an end.

My Mar iron condor position continues to lessen its loss each day; today's theta decay is $815. I may be able to hold the loss this month to approximately one month's gain - not a great performance but it meets the goal of minimizing the losses in these extreme months of market movement. Our April condor now stands at a P/L of -$2,175 with delta = -$18 and theta = +$81. Our position is essentially delta neutral and the theta/delta ratio is excellent.