November 30th is usually a weak day for the markets. Today was no different. The RUT and SPX started strong, related most likely to news of the OPEC deal and the fact that they were technically due for a bounce. NDX had not shown recent weakness and got caught up today as it lead everything lower. In the end the NDX landed near 4810, a pretty incredible fall of 1.28% on the day! It now trades below its 50 day moving average after never making a new high as all the other major indexes did.
A couple of indicators really stood out today. First, short-term volatility (VXST) marked higher than VIX almost all day. It closed below it, however, unable to provide a bearish stance for the market. Second, the TRIN was extremely bullish today, trading below 0.5 and as low as 0.37, only to spike up on the last minutes of selling in the market. Such bullishness is impressive - and at some level worrisome for the bulls when it occurs on a down day. Finally, much like the TRIN, the TICK never hit low levels today either only twice marking below -600 during the whole trading day. All this shows that the NYSE stocks were strong while the tech sector got hammered.
Tomorrow being the first of the month, and a bullish month at that, should be a day for a rebound. However, the rebound maybe short-lived as many of the longer term indicators mark a peak in the market.
Today's trading was complicated due to the weakness in the NDX, where most all of my bull put spreads exist. I mentioned Monday that I added some put spreads to butterfly the 4810/4825 calls I have expiring Dec1. In addition to that butterfly, yesterday I added a 4820/4790 NDX Dec1 put spread. I had to close that today for a debit of $6.85 before it got ran over. Luckily so, as the market ended down at 4810 - right at the apex of my butterfly!
I sold some additional NDX 4880/4900 call spreads for a credit of $2.75. By day's end they were worth 55 cents. I also added some put spreads at 4780/4770 expiring Dec1 for 95 cents. They were worth $1.20 by day's end. All in all, it was an eventful day with the NDX, but overall profitable. We will see what tomorrow brings!
I will give a full monthly wrap up as overall the portfolios were off about 2% this month.
