The markets opened with some enthusiasm this morning and SPX broke through its strong resistance at $1131, but it was short lived. The S&P 500 index pulled back and traded near unchanged for most of the day, closing at $1126, up less than a dollar. RUT traded up, pulled back and then traded mostly sideways, but managed to close up $4 at $651. Trading volume on this expiration Friday was expected to be high and it didn't disappoint; trading in the S&P 500 stocks jumped to 4.2 billion shares, well above the 50 dma at 3.5 billion shares. Trading on the NYSE was up 72% and volume was up 36% on NASDAQ.  The University of Michigan consumer sentiment survey was down a bit from last month at 66.6 and the Consumer Price Index was up 0.3%, as predicted by most analysts. So the economic data didn't really surprise anyone, but it didn't give anyone the incentive for a buying spree either.

My Oct RUT iron condor spreads now stand at a P/L of -$125, position delta = -$104 and position theta = +$115. The delta of the short Oct $690 calls closed at 18, so we remain right at the edge of requiring an adjustment. So now we condor traders sit back and enjoy the weekend of time decay...