Markets have to take pauses from time to time, and after Friday's huge move higher, a breather or pause should be expected. SPX closed at $2104, down $4. RUT dropped $2 to close at $1265. Volatility increased slightly with the VIX increasing about a third of a point to 13.4%. Trading volume spiked up Friday even more than would be normally expected for an expiration Friday. Hence, lower trading volume was to be expected today with 1.9 billion shares of the S&P 500 stocks trading. Trading volume on the NYSE declined 49% and volume dropped off 40% on NASDAQ.

Existing home sales were reported at an annualized rate of 4.88 million in February, up slightly from January's 4.82M.

My April iron condor on RUT at 1110/1120 and 1310/1320 closed today up 9.5% with position delta = -$73 and position theta = $81. Delta of the 1310 call is just under 9, so the pressure on the call spreads remains minimal.

By all measures, we are in a strong bullish market. However, the pattern of frequent "V-bottoms" is not likely to disappear, so keep your stops tight. Several of the stops on my directional trades are being hit as the market whipsaws, but there's not much you can do about that - whipsaws and V-bottoms are simply characteristic of this market.