The markets traded up strongly for the first ten days or so in October but for the past several days, the major indexes seemed to stall at the upper end of the trading range we have been trapped within since August 1. This stall, in itself, was a new wrinkle to the pattern. Previous runs to the upper end of the trading range had just as quickly descended to the lower end of the range. SPX broke through the upper end around $1230 and forcefully closed near its highs for the day at $1238, up $23. RUT gained $16 to close at $712. RUT remains within the trading range of the past couple of months but SPX is in uncharted territory. Traders are still nervously watching Europe for any signs of the sovereign debt crisis being contained. News this weekend could easily undo today's nice bullish run outside the trading range. So we must remain cautiously optimistic. Trading volume bumped up a bit from yesterday with 3.7 billion shares of the S&P 500 trading. Trading volume on the NYSE was up 19% but trading volume declined 2% on NASDAQ.

RUT settled at $709.83, so the remaining 560/570 put spreads in our October iron condor position expired worthless, and that position logged a 9.4% return. The November iron condor on RUT stands at a P/L of +$440 with delta = -$61 and theta = +$163.

So now we pat ourselves on the back for making money in October and focus on enjoying our families and friends for the weekend. Try not to think about the markets until Monday morning.