The markets largely traded sideways and slightly downward this morning, but selling pressure took the markets steadily lower most of the afternoon. But the bulls came in and picked up some bargains around 3 pm ET, helping the markets close off of their lows for the day. SPX closed at $1357, down $5, after hitting a low at $1350 earlier in the afternoon. RUT dropped even harder for the second day, closing down $11 at $844. RUT led the markets all of last year, seemed to falter in early 2011, but then again led in this latest bull run upward, but now the RUT is leading in the decline.

There wasn't much economic news today and no news that I know of to account for the markets selling off. Factory orders were up 3% for March, a big improvement over the 0.7% increase in February; but that news didn't seem to affect the markets. Trading volume was up across the board with 3.5 billion shares of the S&P 500 trading; volume was also up 11% on the NYSE and up 7% on NASDAQ.

This pull back by RUT was welcome relief for my iron condor positions. The May condor now stands at a P/L of +$852 with delta= -$25 and theta = +$65. The June condor stands at a P/L of -$1044 with delta = -$77 and theta = +$92. I removed the hedges from this position today; those adjustments cost me $184 but have kept me in the position with an opportunity to salvage a gain down the road. However, as you can see from the theta/delta ratio, this position isn't out of the woods yet.

The fact that SPX hit $1350 and bounced today is somewhat encouraging. It suggests that significant bullish support remains for this market. But we'll see. The only thing certain about this market is its uncertainty.