The markets were in negative territory almost all day. Many expected the good earnings announcements, led by Apple, to lead the market higher, but that didn't prove to be true. My view is that the earnings announcements have generally been considered as good or exceeding expectations based on profit growth rather than revenue growth (Apple was a notable exception). Companies have aggressively laid off workers and cut costs, resulting in gains in profitability, but those gains are temporary. When you couple this realization with some profit taking after an exceptional run upward for the past few months, some sideways consolidation is the best we can expect. But this presents a much more favorable market for our delta neutral trades.

RUT closed down about $9 to $613 while the SPX dropped $7 to $1091. The RUT is struggling to break through $625 while the SPX can't break $1100. My Nov RUT iron condor (20 contracts of the 520/530 puts and 680/690 calls) stands at a P/L of +$2,220, position delta = -$15 and theta = +$89. Perhaps Nov will be a nice boring month for us condor traders - it's about time! However, I still think there is a good chance of some unexpected economic data scaring this market, so keep your contingent stop loss order in place to close your put spreads in case of a sudden drop.