The markets opened up slightly down this morning, but within a few minutes we were off to the races, with a final push during the last hour of the day. RUT closed at $665, up $15 while the SPX ran $12 to close at $1115. The SPX closed right at its 200 day moving average (dma). Many analysts see that as a key resistance level and will be watching to see if SPX can definitively push through that level tomorrow. A common recurring sign of late is the low trading volume in the markets on these bullish runs; today was no different. Trading on the NYSE was down 12% and basically flat on the NASDAQ (down 1%). Trading in the S&P 500 totaled 3.2 billion shares, down from yesterday and well below the 50 dma at 4.5 billion shares.

New home sales for June came in at 330k, up from 267k in May; this was higher than expected by analysts and appeared to stimulate the buying we saw today. The Euro was strong, and that probably helped as well. Personally, I am puzzled by this market; in my opinion, all of the negatives that were worrying this market a couple of weeks ago are still here: Euro sovereign debt, persistent high unemployment in the U.S., increasing U.S. debt levels, slow economic recovery, and at least a few signs of a possible double dip. But the market appears to have shrugged these concerns off.

Significant adjustments were necessary for my Aug iron condor today. I bought two Sept $680 calls at $17.49 (I should have bought these Friday but I was traveling; however, that is no excuse; I should have used a contingent order). I also closed and rolled half of my 680/690 call spreads to 705/715. This moved the Greeks for the position to a more acceptable level: delta = -$48 and theta = +$87. The delta of the short $680 calls = 38, so I will close and roll the remaining ten contracts if the market continues upward tomorrow. I also adjusted my RUT Aug 580/630/680 butterfly by buying an additional 680 call for $9.70; this keeps my position P/L below my 25% stop loss and flattens the immediate time decay curve so the losses will stay approximately constant up through about $675 on RUT (delta = -$6).

I am on vacation near Bath, Maine - some of the most beautiful ocean coastline I have ever seen! I was on a lobster boat this morning so I was late adjusting my condor. Fishing for lobsters is a tough business - no wimps allowed!

Watch the SPX to see if it can push past the 200 dma tomorrow. That will be a bullish sign, but it would also be nice to see a price increase with increased trading volume.