Wall Street took us on a a wild ride today. First we were spooked by the 5% decline in the Chinese markets overnight, and, of course, that was reflected in the S&P futures this morning. To my surprise, SPX opened roughly at yesterday's close (I expected worse based on the futures), but proceeded to drop like a rock to $1560 before rebounding a bit to close with a $19 loss at $1573. RUT traded down $13 and closed at $951. The wild ride was reflected in the VIX, ranging from 18.5% to nearly 22%. VIX closed at 20.1%, up 1.2 percentage points. The fact that it didn't close at the low of the day is significant - even the most optimistic trader was taken back by today's price swings.

At today's close, SPX is now down just under 6% from its highs in May. SPX has now sliced through the 50 dma and broken a strong support level at $1600. It is basically in no man's land here. The next strong support level is at $1540. Most analysts define a correction as a drop in value of 7-10%, so we are in the neighborhood, but could go lower. Today's rebound was encouraging, but I doubt we are out of the woods. I don't believe there is a rational basis for this drop of the past week or so (although the airwaves are full of explanations). I think we are just observing the natural market correction to earlier excesses.

My July condor on RUT at 870/880 and 1060/1070 stands at a net gain of $1,100 or +7% with position delta of +$43 and position theta of +$81 on 20 contracts. By the way, if you wish to compare the Greeks of your position with mine, just divide my position Greek by 20 and then multiply by the number of contracts in your position.

OK, the market is closed. Go relax and do something mindless (don't listen to the news; it might push you over the edge).