I don't think I am alone in being bewildered by this market. I feel like a mouse in the middle of a sumo wrestling match. Today SPX lost $41 to close at $1928 and RUT traded down $29 to $1068. Let's review: SPX traded down $30 on Tuesday, then it traded up $34 on Wednesday. then we lost $41 today. "Good grief", said Charlie Brown. I'm not sure anyone has a good answer for it, but the facts are that more one percent moves in the stock market occur in October than any other month. But I think recent markets are setting records for the huge whipsaws back and forth. Thirty and forty dollar moves on the S&P 500 back to back, and in opposite directions, are largely unprecedented. This market is rattling even the institutional traders. Over 2.6 billion shares of the S&P 500 traded today. But just to keep the data bewildering, trading volume was down 2% on the NYSE and trading on NASDAQ dropped 9%.

The number of initial unemployment claims reported today at 287k, flat from last week's 288k. Continuing unemployment claims were down slightly at 2.38 million, up from 2.40 million.

I took the opportunity to close my remaining SPX Oct 2080/2090 call spreads for five cents. This closes the October position for a gain of 8.2%. I am freeing up cash for a new November position. Our current November trade is doing well, but I expect we will close it early some time after this market bounces. When we see the market bounce (that will be a risky call, given the price volatility), I will sell more November put spreads. Our current November put spreads are over one hundred dollars OTM.

Time to relax and call it a day...