Traders were encouraged by some acquisition activity this morning and the markets opened up in positive territory and were strong all morning. The broad markets hit their highs just before noon, but they held most of the gains into the close. SPX gained $8 to close at $1319, a new 52 week high. RUT closed at $808 with a gain of $8; today's close on RUT matched the highs made in mid-January. However, today's market gains were made on lower volume. 3.1 billion shares of the S&P 500 changed hands, down a bit from Friday and below the 50 dma at 3.4B shares. Trading volume was down 3% on the NYSE and down 11% on NASDAQ. AAPL marked up a new 52 week high and prompted many to chatter about it being over-priced.

My Mar iron condor on RUT stands at a P/L of +$380, delta = -$31 and theta = +$76.

One measure of this bull market will be whether the support level at $1300 on SPX can hold if we have a minor pull back in the next week or two. That nearly straight-upward price chart on SPX does give one pause; no wonder so many analysts are predicting a correction. But the market does seem to have the ability to prove the largest number of analysts wrong at any given point in time. Which is why it is easier to play what the market gives me than what I am predicting.