Today's markets spent most of the day in slightly positive territory, became rather choppy after the FOMC announcement, and then sold off in the last 30 minutes. The FOMC basically gave the expected announcement, i.e., that interest rates will remain low for "an extended period" to stimulate the economy. That seemed pretty positive to me, but it apparently stimulated some significant volatility in the afternoon trading.

RUT closed down about $7 to $563 while the SPX closed in positive territory at $1047. I decided to sell the Jan $510 puts hedging my Dec put spreads at $12.20 this morning, resulting in a $100 loss. The late afternoon sell-off has my short put spreads back in a dangerous area, so I will be watchful until this market trades back up a bit or at least treads water for a few days. The Greeks of the Dec iron condor are pretty strong at a position delta of -$6 and position theta of +$99.

The "earnings season" thus far does not seem to be giving the market participants much comfort. So we may trade in this basically choppy, sideways to slightly downward fashion for a while. But who really knows? That is why you must have a system and follow your rules.