Slope of Hope Blog Posts

Slope initially began as a blog, so this is where most of the website’s content resides. Here we have tens of thousands of posts dating back over a decade. These are listed in reverse chronological order. Click on any category icon below to see posts tagged with that particular subject, or click on a word in the category cloud on the right side of the screen for more specific choices.

Crossing the Line (by Springheel Jack)

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I'm in two minds about market direction this morning. As I expected, ES
has returned to the lower trendline of the large rising wedge formed
since the low, and once there it can obviously bounce back up towards
the top trendline, or break the wedge and start resolving down much
further.

I therefore have two scenarios for ES, which become the same scenario
next week, as we form what I am expecting to be the right shoulder of a
bottoming IHS. Here's the first scenario where the lower trendline of
the rising wedge breaks today, and ES falls to my next target in the
1050 – 1060 area:

100730 ES 60min IHS Scenario 1

On my second scenario, ES bounces back towards the top trendline of the
rising wedge, and turns back either at the recent high, or the June
high, both of which are possible necklines for the IHS that I think is
forming. It then turns back down towards the 1050 – 1060 ES area to make
the right shoulder of that IHS

Resistance at 1104.5 ES could hold however, giving only a partial rise. I'm looking for an upswing target of 1.575 on GBPUSD and (less confidently) 1.314 on EURUSD, If they are hit before or as we hit 1104.5, then the chances are that we will go no higher.

100730_ES_60min_IHS_Scenario_2

For today's direction, the key is the strong support area at 1084.5 ES.
If it breaks and we close an hour below it, then we are going with
scenario 1 IMO. If it holds then we are going with scenario 2. I'm
leaning towards scenario 2 slightly because EURUSD and GBPUSD have not
yet made my upside targets for them, but it could easily go the other
way.

I've mentioned before that I think we have bottomed for the summer, and
the reason I think so is because of breaks down in USD and long
treasuries, among other reasons, but the target of the large rising
wedge is obviously for a full retracement of the rise since the low,
though I'm not expecting to see that hit.

Instead I am assuming that the rising wedge will evolve into a rising
channel, as they often do and from that I get my target of 1050 – 1060
ES, though the target would be 1045 ES if it was hit today. If that
theoretical trendline breaks, and if the mid-July low is broken, then we
will most likely see a return to and possibly beyond the lows, despite
the many indicators suggesting that won't happen.

The Hypnotic Market

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The market continues to resemble an EKG with some faulty circuitry. I have become accustomed to big profits swooshing to big losses and then back again, even on an hour-to-hour basis.

At the moment, my portfolio is virtually unchanged, which I feel pretty decent about since the IWM is up 0.52% as I am typing this. I'm listening to They Might Be Giants, and "Spiraling Shape" seems to capture this market beautifully ("And now that you've tried it, you're back to report/That the spiralling shape was a fraud and a fake……") There's a gent on YouTube who does an amazing job with TMBG songs on his piano, so I've placed his video below, along with the core lyrics.

You have been edified.

Down, down, down you go

No way to stop

As you fall, hear me call

No, no, no

Listen to this warning and

Consider these

Simple words of advice

Stop, stop, stop

Fogging the view, cupping face to the window

In darkness you make out a spiralling shape

Putting all reason aside you exchange

What you got for a thing that's hypnotic and strange

The spiralling shape will make you go insane

(Everyone wants to see that groovy thing)

But everyone wants to see that groovy thing

(Everyone wants to see that thing)

And nobody knows what it's really like

But everyone says it's great

And they heard it from the spiral in their eyes

This could lead to excellence

Or serious injury

Only one way to know

Go, go, go

Go ahead, wreck your life

That might be good

Who can say what's wrong or right?

Nobody can

Put out your hands and you fall through the window

And clawing at nothing you drop through the void

Your terrified screams are inaudible drowned

In the spiral ahead and consumed in the shape

And now that you've tried it, you're back to report

That the spiralling shape was a fraud and a fake

You didn't enjoy it, you never believed it

There won't be a refund, you'll never go back

Money for Nothing

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Good morning.

Yesterday evening, I was in my car listening to NPR, and the reporter stated that the upcoming federal deficit for the year would be over $1.5 trillion dollars.

0730-cowbell 

 

Even to someone as cynical as me, I was flabbergasted. It wasn't that many years ago when the nation's entire debt crossed the trillion dollar mark, and people were disgusted at the insanity. Now we're doing that entire amount, plus 50%, in just a single year!

The really gut-wrenching part was when they played Obama speaking about the economy. His two talking points, which he has repeated on a daily basis for months now, are:

+ This wasn't my fault; Bush handed me this disaster;

+ The economy is growing and improving (pfft!), but if we hadn't done the huge bailout and stimulus, it would be much worse

Listen, the results aren't impressive. Even the severely fudged numbers spewing from Washington show a completely anemic economy, and that's with trillions of dollars being poured into a system that will eventually reach ruination.

It occurs to me that we have created the Tori Spelling economy: one in which you have unlimited financial resources to throw at the problem, but no matter how much you spend on plastic surgery (or bailouts for investment banks and people who haven't worked for ages), it's still going to look something like this:

0730-spelling

C’est Moi!

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I've got some pretty cool news; I've just received my allocation of Chart Your Way to Profits – Second Edition, and it's ready to ship. If you'd like to buy an autographed copy, read below…… 

0729-cywtpo 

 

If you'd like me to sign a copy and ship it out to you, just sent a $60 check made out to Tim Knight to the address 555 Bryant Street #711 Palo Alto CA 94301. That's 20% off the retail price, and you get it personally autographed, which easily adds fifty to seventy-five cents of value to the book.

I've never done this before, but I'll be interested to see if any of my readers would like a copy; this is hot off the press, so get 'em while they're hot! If you use ProphetCharts, I think you'll really benefit.