Eoin Treacy's view This is still a very small hedge position relative to my holdings in equities but I did say that I would most likely increase it if the S&P 500 Index (weekly & daily) continued to rise in a straight line. This evening, I doubled the size of my earlier short position by selling the Dec contract at 1766.38, including all spread-bet dealing costs.

The S&P has risen for 13 of the last 15 days; it is up 24% this year - the best annual gain for a decade, and it is 160% above its 2009 low. It also trades at a PER of 16.8 and yields 2%. This is not euphoric but it is certainly not cheap, thanks to the Fed.