Today's market started off bullish just as nearly every day has recently. The SPX gained about $5 to $6 and then largely traded sideways until the last hour when it gave back all of the gains to close at $1240, unchanged for the day. RUT actually performed worse than the SPX for a change and lost $5 to close at $772. Trading volume was largely flat with the S&P 500 stocks trading just above the 50 dma at 3.6 billion shares. Trading was down 4% on the NYSE and up 5% on NASDAQ. Volatility hit a new low this morning, breaking below 17%, but then rose this afternoon to close at 17.6%.
I closed the 1280/1290 call spreads of my Jan SPX iron condor for $2.75 and rolled them up to 1300/1310. That brings my Greeks more in line with delta = -$56 and theta = +$73. But my maximum potential gain has been reduced to about $400. I am considering rolling my put spreads up to build a little more profit potential into this trade, but I am wary of a market pullback. The Dec 660/670 put spreads remaining from my Dec iron condor on RUT are far OTM so I will allow them to expire worthless, resulting in a 10% gain for the December position.
Late Selling Erases Gains
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- Written by Dr. Duke
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