The stock markets opened flat this morning and traded sideways until around noon when the dollar declined and stocks rose. The markets held those gains into the close. An absence of economic data appeared to cause many to stay on the sidelines. Trading volume was way off from Friday with only 2.2 billion shares of the S&P 500 changing hands. That was the lowest trading volume for the S&P 500 recorded in 2011. Trading volume was down 25% on the NYSE and down 19% on NASDAQ. The SPX closed up $6 at $1346 while RUT closed at $843, up $9. Economic data will continue to be in short supply until Thursday when unemployment claims and the PPI will be reported. That will be followed by the CPI and the University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment survey results on Friday.

I closed the remaining 890/900 call spreads in my May condor on RUT today. This position now consists of ten contracts of the 920/930 calls and twenty contracts of the 720/730 put spreads. At this point, it appears likely I will allow the remaining spreads to expire worthless. The current position is up about $1,100 with delta = -$1 and theta = +$21. If the remaining spreads expire worthless, the May condor will gain $1,272 or 7% on capital at risk. The Jun iron condor on RUT stands at a P/L of +$316 with delta = -$61 and theta = +$90. So we continue to trade what the market gives us while others attempt to predict the future...