The markets traded largely sideways today but the major indexes did manage to close modestly higher (with the exception of the Dow). SPX finally broke through $1230 and held it into the close at $1233, up $5. RUT made another high (wow) at $768, up $4. Trading volume was flat to slightly higher with the S&P 500 stocks trading at the 50 dma. Trading on the NYSE increased 2% and increased 10% on NASDAQ. The Volatility Index (VIX) dropped almost 3 points to close at 17%. In general, the VIX trades lower as the market trades higher and vice versa. So the fact that VIX has been trending downward as the market climbs isn't surprising. But as VIX gets lower, many analysts see the probability of a market pullback increasing. Jim Bittman gave an interesting talk at the Traders Expo in Las Vegas on the VIX; his message was to watch for divergence of the VIX trend with the market trend for signals of a significant market shift. But what we have here is standard VIX behavior: market trends higher and VIX trends lower.

My Jan condor on SPX sits at a P/L of -$1,139 with delta = -$87 and theta = +$81. The delta of my short call is 21 where I would normally be adjusting this position, but I am allowing this one to move a little further because of my expectation of a slow down in the markets as we enter the holidays. Absent a pullback or several days of sideways action, I will be rolling those call spreads higher soon.