I will be traveling to Las Vegas to speak at the Forex and Options Expo shortly after the market closes today, so I will be unable to write my usual blog after the close. At this point in time, the market has responded very positively to Bernanke's policy changes. SPX is up over $23 to $1459 and RUT is up $11 to $857. VIX has dropped almost two percentage points to 14.3% as the market rallies strongly.

I must admit this strong move surprised me. I thought QE III had been sufficiently telegraphed that the market response would be mild, but that is certainly not the case.

RUT has trampled on my Sept condor; the market is still out on the damages, but a loss of the order of 30% for this month is my best guess at this point. I did not succeed in my usual objective of holding the losses to a good month's gains; I ended up giving back about two month's gains. But we remain in the black for the year and the October position is hedged and doing fine.

That's life in the trading game: sometimes you win and sometimes you lose; success is in minimizing the losses so that you remain positive over time.