Dr. Duke's Blog

The Canadian terrorism scare didn't last long. The bulls were buying with both hands as the market opened this morning. Apparently, the "buy the dip" strategy is on again. SPX gained $24 today, closing at $1951. RUT gained $20 to close at $1116. This puts SPX solidly above its 200 dma at $1908; the bulls are once again in charge of this market. SPX spurted upward at the open this morning and traded somewhat higher in the early afternoon, but then pulled back to close near where it was about an hour after the open. The VIX dropped off another point and a third to close at 16.5%. Trading volume was down with 2.2 billion shares of the S&P 500 stocks trading today. Trading volume was unchanged on the NYSE and down 2% on NASDAQ.

The report of initial unemployment claims came in at 283k, up from last week's 266k. Continuing claims fell by thirty eight thousand to 2.35 million.

As volatility unwinds and SPX trades higher, the put spreads remaining in my November iron condor position are moving into the black once again, now up about 5%. If the bulls slow down, I might add some new call spreads, but that doesn't look likely.

Maybe it's time to start working that list of bullish stock candidates?