Conciliatory remarks coming out of the politicians in Washington boosted markets today. Am I the only one that finds this ludicrous? Hope springs eternal. SPX closed up $7 at $1360 and RUT also rose $7 to close at $776. Trading volume was probably up due to options expiration, with 3.1 billion shares of the S&P 500 stocks. Trading volume on the NYSE was up 21% and trading was up 9% on NASDAQ. VIX dropped almost two points to close at 16.4%.

Industrial production numbers were reported for October today and they decreased 0.4%. Capacity utilization also dropped to 77.8% from September's 78.2%.

SPX settled at $1353.46 for November and RUT settled at $768.02 for November. The 860/870 call spreads in my November position expired worthless, confirming a 15% gain for November and a 35% gain year to date for the Flying With The Condor™ service. Recent drops in the market resulted in my re-positioning the Dec iron condor on RUT to 690/700 and 830/840. This position now stands at a net gain of $660 or +4% with position delta = -$31 and position theta = +$99.

Enjoy your weekend.