The markets took a breather today after that strong showing yesterday, trading basically sideways all day in lower volume. SPX closed at $1196, up $1 and RUT gained $4 to close at $689. Trading volume on the S&P 500 was flat at 3.0 billion shares; trading on the NYSE was up 3% and trading volume was up 5% on NASDAQ. An absence of economic data and no new rumors or news from Europe left the markets listless. SPX appeared to bounce off resistance at $1200; that level has been pretty strong resistance in the recent past. If it breaks through $1200, the next resistance is $1220 before we can possibly hope we have broken free of this trading range.

My Oct iron condor on RUT is close to break-even with a P/L of -$204 and delta = -$64 and theta = +$223. The Nov condor stands at a P/L of +$660 with position delta = -$35 and position theta = +$92 on 20 contracts.