Friday's gains were slowly but surely taken back in a light volume trading day. Trading volume may continue to drop as we near the holiday weekend. Trading on the NYSE and the NASDAQ were both off 26% today. Trading in the S&P 500 stocks dropped dramatically to 2.6 billion shares from Friday's 3.7 billion shares. The broad indexes all closed at or near session lows; SPX dropped $16 to close at $1049, but still well above support at $1040. RUT also traded off to close at $602, down $15, but still above support at $588. I have pointed out support because I believe the market is caught in a trading range that will probably last through the holiday weekend; if SPX breaks $1040, then we are in trouble. Personal income was reported to have risen 0.2%  while personal spending rose 0.4% and the PCE price index rose 0.1%. So the economic data wasn't the problem. Perhaps the traders are in a "wait and see" mode until after Labor Day.

In the meantime, my Sept and Oct condors are well positioned. The Sept iron condor on RUT stands at a P/L of +$950, delta = +$53 and theta = +$112, while Oct stands at a P/L of +$240, delta = -$20 and theta = +$78. Trading ranges are good for condors! Time decay continues while we wait for the market to find its direction.

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