The markets opened up this morning down a few points and just chopped sideways through the day on lower volume. SPX closed at $1304, down $4 while RUT closed at $796, down $3. Trading volume declined across the board with 3.2 billion shares of the S&P 500 stocks trading; volume declined 14% on the NYSE and declined 12% on NASDAQ. The volatility index (VIX) dropped to 17.3%, not quite back to the lows last Thursday around 16% (before the big down day Friday). The fact that SPX was able to hold its close above the previous resistance level (now support) of $1300 was a positive indicator for a continued bullish trend. The ADP payroll report was positive with a gain of 187k jobs in January while analysts expected 145k, but the markets didn't take notice.

I closed my AAPL Feb 310/320 call spread for a 30% gain today and I also closed the RUT Feb iron condor with $0.20 debits on each side for a gain of $2,500 or 15% on capital at risk (20 contracts). This was an unusual month for the condor trader; I never adjusted the Feb position. That only happened once in 2010. The RUT Mar condor stands at a P/L of -$300, delta = -$13 and theta = +$82.