The markets slowed their upward surge today, but this may just be a breather on the march upward. SPX gained $1 to close at $1402 and RUT lost $1 to close at $800. SPX can't seem to decisively break through the May highs of $1405, but it is too early to count it out. SPX is standing on the doorstep. Trading volume backed off today with 2.3 billion shares of the S&P 500 trading. Volume dropped 12% on the NYSE but only decreased 1% on NASDAQ.  VIX closed at 15.3%; one has to go back to March of this year to find lower values of VIX.

I closed the 850/860 call spreads of my Aug iron condor on RUT today for $0.10. Assuming the 650/660 put spreads expire worthless in about 10 days, the August position gains $2,420 on 20 contracts or 14.5%. This brings the year to date gains for the Flying With The Condor™ to 39.7% as compared to the S&P 500, up 11.4%. My Sept RUT iron condor stands at break-even with position delta = -$82 and position theta = +$81. This position still has 43 days to expiration, so we are just getting started. The fact that delta and theta are of the same magnitude shows the pressure on the call spreads by the recent upward trend. The Sep 850 calls have a delta of 15, so we are still a ways from needing to adjust this position.