The markets opened up strong this morning in spite of lackluster employment data, but the bears took control and drove the SPX back under the key $1000 support level. RUT closed at $557.62, near its support level at $551. But the market averages are still up for the week, so this is nothing more than a healthy slow down after a strong run (so far).

This pullback in RUT helped my Aug iron condor at a P/L of -$1,870, delta = -$38, and theta = +$116. Theta/delta is at a healthy 3:1 ratio, and the P/L is moderating. My short $590 calls now stand about one standard deviation OTM. A little more pullback in RUT will tempt me to add some 590/600 call spreads to try to squeeze a profit out of this crazy month; but that will increase my price risk and we only have two weeks left.

Let's talk about hindsight in trading for a moment. The pullback of the last two days has been enough to have brought my Aug iron butterfly back into the range of profitability if it were still open. Looking back at closed trades and thinking about how much money I could have made is not healthy for my trading. However, reviewing old trades with the objective of improving one's trading is very beneficial. I keep a trading journal and review my trades at the end of each month. I categorize the trades that lost money into two camps: 1) Bad Trades, and 2) Losing Trades. If I broke one or more of my trading rules, that was a Bad Trade; if I followed my rules but still lost money, that is simply a losing trade - it is part of the overhead of the trading business. I will always have losing trades; the key is to minimize those losses. Spending time each month reviewing your closed trades will make you a better trader.