Today began with a heavy dose of disappointing economic data: new home sales fell 12.4%, durable goods orders only increased 0.3% (analysts expected 3%), and Standard and Poors downgraded Ireland's debt. That sent the major indexes tumbling, but, surprisingly, the drop was short-lived. The markets recovered all of the drop and closed with reasonable gains. The SPX dropped as low as $1040 before rebounding to gain $3, closing at $1055. RUT dipped to $589 again today, reinforcing that support level. Then RUT recovered its losses and closed up $9 at $605. Trading volume decreased across the board with a 4% drop on the NYSE, and a 5% drop on NASDAQ. The S&P 500 stocks traded down to 3.7 billion shares, just below the 50 dma.

After watching RUT rebound off strong support at $589 for the second day, I decided to open my Oct RUT iron condors today at 480/490 and 690/700 for a credit of $2,900 (20 contracts). The Sept position at 530/540 and 740/750 stands at a P/L of +$690 with position delta = +$50 and position theta = +$91. Today's rise of RUT moved my theta/delta ratio back to a more healthy value.

Today's recovery was encouraging, but one has to temper that with the decreased trading volume.