The markets traded most of the day in negative territory, but ended the day slightly up. RUT closed at $602 and the SPX closed at $1058. The markets continue on the bullish trend, albeit consolidating to a large degree lately. All in all, this is currently a good market for delta neutral strategies - a welcome relief from the strong trending market of a few weeks ago.

My Oct condor hasn't changed much from yesterday, but theta is starting to build as we near the final week of the October options' life: P/L = +$130, delta = +$18 and theta = +$135. Both short strikes are outside of two standard deviations at this point. The Friday before expiration is the time when I apply my "close or let go" decision. I will close positions that are under two standard deviations OTM; spreads that are greater than two standard deviations OTM will be allowed to expire worthless (but watched carefully). My Nov condor stands at a P/L of +$1,020, delta = -$11 and theta = +$76. This condor is positioned well right now, but we still have 43 days for the market to move against us. Stay tuned.