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The markets continue to have a bias to the upside, although the pace has moderated significantly. The Russell 2000 Index (RUT) closed up at $576.38, nearing its resistance level of $580-$589, set the last week of August. The Standard and Poors 500 (SPX) closed at $1025.39, near its resistance level of $1035-$1039.
My Sept iron condors are in excellent shape as we wind down toward September expiration with P/L = +$3,210, delta = -$37, and theta = +$137. The Oct condors are much farther from expiration, but are in good shape with a P/L = +$625, delta = -$29, and theta = +$61.
I tried an experiment this holiday weekend. I recorded the closing prices for all of the options in my September and October condors on Friday and then adjusted for the RUT price change (delta) and IV change (vega) this morning and compared those adjusted prices to the market prices. If the market makers had completely adjusted their prices Friday for the three days of time decay, one would expect my adjusted prices to be high since I had not accounted for any time decay. As it turns out, it is about half and half (based on one rough set of data); it appears that most of the time decay was already taken out of about half of these options, but not all of the decay was accounted for in about half of the options. So the lesson is this: if you are establishing any positive theta positions before a long holiday weekend, put them on early Friday at the latest; Thursday is probably better. By Friday afternoon, much, but probably not all, of the time decay has already been factored in the option price.
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The unemployment report surprised us with an increase to 9.7%, but this didn't faze the market. This market's resilience has surprised me over the past several sessions; it continues to shake off bad news and rally back from intra-day lows. RUT and SPX both closed up at $571 and $1016, respectively. However, the trading volume was low today going into the holiday weekend, so it is hard to have much confidence in one's conclusions here. Just reading the chart leads one to believe the dangers to delta neutral traders remain on the top side; however, I still have not seen much to make me optimistic about this economy. But the market doesn't agree with me. So I will continue to play what the market gives me, even while I am scratching my head.
My Sept iron condor stands at a P/L of +$2,740, delta = -$17, and theta = +$162 - excellent numbers. The Oct iron condor still has 41 days left in it, so the numbers aren't as pretty: P/L of +$550, delta = -$16, and theta = +$57. But they aren't bad. The theta/delta ratio is still very strong at 3.5.
With my positions sitting pretty, it will be easy to relax this holiday weekend. I hope you get to spend some quality time with family and friends.
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The markets didn't do much of anything today. RUT closed down a couple of dollars to $556 - still holding at support around $550. The SPX closed down $3 to $995, still in its support area; look at the SPX chart for Aug 4-14 and see how it held in the range of $992 to $1012 for several days; that is the support level I'm watching. A strong breakout at higher volume below $990 would be of concern; otherwise, this market is just consolidating after a huge rally. And we may be seeing a bit of a slowdown before the holiday weekend.
My condors are loving this consolidation - delta stays neutral while positive time decay works in my favor. The Sept condor stands at a P/L of +$1920, delta = +$32, and theta = +$185, while the Oct position stands at a P/L of +$70, delta = -$9, and theta = +$63.
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The markets opened and traded down early today and then spent most of the day trading choppily and mostly sideways. But the bulls came to the floor in the last hour and pushed all of the major indexes higher. The Russell 2000 Index traded as low as $552 in the morning and closed at its high for the day, $562.49. The Standard and Poors 500 (SPX) traded in a similar pattern and closed within a quarter of its high for the day at $1003.24. Gold closed at a six month high of $998.
Early in the day, the talking heads attributed the sideways trading to the market waiting for the unemployment numbers tomorrow morning. If that was true, someone must have decided those numbers are going to look better than expected, given the strength of the buying late in the day. The patterns of trading this week seem to suggest a fundamentally sound market and just some healthy consolidation occurring. However, I think most market players are still a little on edge from the extreme volatility of the past year. So some surprise, like a big jump in the unemployment number tomorrow, might push this market off the cliff. However, in the absence of that panic scenario, my iron condors will continue to generate profit as we consolidate sideways. My condors are in excellent shape with the Sept position at a P/L of +$2,290, delta = +$7 and theta = +$191. The Oct condor closed at a P/L of +$160, delta = -$14 and theta = +$66. So now we watch for the unemployment number and, barring no surprises, we enjoy a long weekend of time decay.
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An old Wall Street saying is to "buy the rumor and sell the news". This morning's market saw favorable reports for the ISM Manufacturing Index, July construction spending, and pending home sales for July. But the market's favorable reaction didn't last long; by mid morning, all of the indexes were falling significantly. The rationale was that all of this good economic news was priced into the market in the recent rally, so profit taking ensued. The SPX closed at $998, near its long term support level of $1000, and RUT closed at $558, just above its $550 support level.
The downward moves of the past few days have been helpful for my iron condors. The Sept condor stands at a P/L of +$1,690, delta = +$17, and theta = +$199. So we are very close to delta neutral with theta decay generating about $200 per day. The Oct condor still has 44 days left in it and this market has left the RUT near the midpoint of this condor; normally, I would be looking to roll up or down one side or the other and take some profits here, but the increased IV has prevented that so far. Currently, the Oct condor stands at a P/L of +$70, delta = -$5, and theta = +$59. As long as the market doesn't "fall off the cliff", we will do nothing with these positions.
