The futures were weak this morning and the market opened down initially, but quickly recovered and steadily gained throughout the day. The SPX closed at $1185, for a gain of $9. SPX appears to be on cruise control towards the April high of about $1220. RUT also gained on the day, up $7 to close at $710. RUT's April high was at about $745. VIX spiked up early, but settled to close at 19.1%, about where it closed yesterday. Trading volumes were down from Friday's highs, but still above average. Trading in the S&P 500 stocks came in at 3.9 billion shares, well above the 50 dma at 3.4 billion shares. Trading on the NYSE was down 31% from Friday and trading on the NASDAQ was down 22%. Industrial production declined 0.2% in September and capacity utilization was flat at 75%.

My November iron condor on RUT stands at a P/L of -$2386, with position delta of -$45 and theta = +$85. The delta of the short $740 calls rose to 27 today.

AAPL continues to run skyward, closing at $318 today; that forced me to close my Jan 2011 270/300/330 butterfly, locking in a 51% gain. My best guess is that AAPL will eventually pull back and continue to trade within the break-evens of this butterfly, but I was reluctant to watch the profits decline any further. I didn't want to let a 51% gain get away while I was waiting on a pull back. As it turned out, analysts were disappointed with AAPL's sales of the iPad, so my butterfly would have been worth a lot more tomorrow, but I didn't see a disappointing earning announcement in the cards.

Check out the Traders Expo in Las Vegas November 17-20. I will be speaking on the 19th, but much better known speakers than myself will be there. The organizers  have created an excellent program. And, best of all, you can register for free! Please make it a point to introduce yourself after my talk; I would enjoy meeting any or all of you.