SPX closed just above its 50 dma at $1095 yesterday, so all eyes were watching to see if it could hold that key support level today. In the early going, it looked like it wasn't going to hold, but then SPX rallied as high as $1099 before pulling all the way back to $1088. But the bulls came to the rescue and drove SPX to close unchanged at $1095. RUT traded in similar fashion, but was unable to recover all of its losses, closing at $640, down $3. Trading volume dropped today by 7% on the NYSE and dropped 6% on NASDAQ. Trading in the S&P 500 stocks dropped from yesterday to about 3.7 billion shares, well below the 50 dma.

The price charts of RUT and SPX are displaying the harami candlestick pattern (or an "inside day" on a bar chart). Haramis suggest a possible reversal of direction - after a strong up day yesterday, we have a doji candlestick today, suggesting market indecision, and possibly a market turning point. But in these markets, I'm not sure any of my indicators have much value. It seems as though the market is just thrashing back and forth from one extreme to the other. Recent events have made me cautious.

When the market ran up this morning after testing support, I added to the hedges on my Aug iron condor. The P/L now stands at -$2,780 with position delta = -$23 and theta = +$76. Since RUT pulled back, I now am probably hedged more than necessary. BUT, adjusting early and too much is always preferable to adjusting too late. So now we watch to see who will win this bull/bear tug of war.