The unemployment claims data brought the bears out on a selling spree today. Initial unemployment claims hit a new high of 500k from 488k last week, while continuing claims decreased by 13k to 4.478 million. Then the Philadelphia Fed survey came out at -7.7, down markedly from last month's 5.0. RUT dropped $17 to close at $611 while the SPX dropped $19 to close at $1076. SPX fell through its 50 dma at $1088 like a knife through butter. All of this carnage occurred on increased trading volume. The S&P 500 stocks traded 3.9 billion shares, just above the 50 dma at 3.7 billion shares. Trading on the NYSE increased by 15% and ran up 26% on NASDAQ.

I decided to allow all of the spreads in my AUG iron condor go into expiration; they will all certainly expire worthless with one possible exception for the 590/600 puts, but they have a safety margin of $11. If they expire worthless, this position ends with a $923 gain or 6% on capital at risk. The Sept position stands at a P/L of +$700 with delta = +$46 and theta = +$63. Normally, expiration Friday is a high volume day of trading; it will be interesting to see if volumes are up from today's high levels.

Comments (0)