Trading volume fell dramatically as many traders took the Columbus Day holiday off work. Trading volume on the NYSE fell 27% and dropped 26% on NASDAQ. Trading in the S&P 500 dropped to 1.7 billion shares, well below the 50 dma at 2.4 B. SPX closed down $5 at $1456 and RUT dropped $4 to close at $838. Volatility expanded a bit with the VIX rising almost one point to 15.1%. SPX remains trapped between the highs set in mid-September and the lower edge of the bullish trend line of the past several months. The 50 dma is down at $1424.

There was no economic news to push the market today. The Fed's beige book comes out Wednesday; unemployment claims report on Thursday and then PPI and consumer sentiment numbers are released Friday. So no huge events are scheduled for this week, unless there is a big surprise in one of those reports. And, of course, we always have the possibility of market moving news coming out of Europe. Europe's debt situation and economic slowdown have moved to the back burner along with the fiscal cliff worries. For my fellow Mad Magazine fans, "What, me worry?" I loved that magazine when I was younger.

My Oct iron condor on RUT is limping along with a P/L of $180, barely in the black and delta = +$48 and theta = +$67. By contrast, the Nov position is already up 6%. So we wait to see if anything changes when everyone returns to Wall Street tomorrow.