The markets opened up pretty strongly this morning and stayed in the black until after the Fed announcement. SPX closed down $11 at $1226 and RUT lost $15 to close at $718. SPX was as high as $1250 early in the day, but gave it all back in the last couple of hours of trading. Trading volume picked up with 3.1 billion shares of the S&P 500 stocks trading, but that is still below the 50 day moving average. Trading increased 24% on the NYSE and increased 14% on NASDAQ.

The big news of the day was the FOMC announcement. The Fed made the most positive statements about the economic recovery it has made in quite some time (albeit still modest). But many were expecting a QE III program of some sort and were disappointed. Thus, the markets traded off pretty strongly late in the day. The VIX dropped to 23.3% this morning but then moved up in the afternoon to close at 25.4%. The morning reading was the lowest VIX has been since early August.

My Jan SPX iron condor at 970/980 and 1350/1360 stands at a net gain of $1,400 with position delta = -$8 and position theta = +$77. Today's downward move relieved the pressure on the call spreads, so this position is in pretty good shape. But in this volatile market, that could change quickly. The Euro Watch is still in full swing and any manner of news could swing this market one way or the other very easily.