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.

SocialTrade’s Forthcoming Makeover

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Although just a couple of weeks old, SocialTrade is really getting a head of steam. I am increasingly relying upon it for the latest market insights, and new users keep piling in. There's also a pretty cool write-up coming about the site in a major publication next month.

The five-new-features-a-day schtick has ended since I think it's got a terrific assortment of features already, but there are a couple of recent tweaks. First of all, the email you are automatically sent each afternoon doesn't simply state how many pages were posted but shows you thumbnails of some of those pages, giving you at at-a-glance way of seeing if there's anything of particular import you'd like to check out.

0624-email

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The Integrity of Government

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Everywhere you look today there is a mention of how Chinese data is fake. Yawnnn! Have they discovered God in the laboratory? Of course almost everything that comes out of any Government is false. China may be faking 90% of what is reported but look closer at home. I think almost everything that USA reports are blatantly false. Be it BLS job data, GDP data, Housing data, Loan data or even serious things like WMD. Colin Powell even lied before the UN and US went to a false war on false pretext. So I fail to understand what the big deal about the false data out of China. Whoever believed it in the 1st place please raise your hand. You must believe in tooth fairy as well!

Europe has been the front and centre of our life for the last few months. But so it had been in these very months of 2010 and 2011. Every June, from 2010, we feel that Europe is coming to an end. The fact is, America will falter before Europe. If Europe is struggling because of its massive debt, if Japan is in depression because of its 200% + Debt:GDP ratio, just wait when the chickens come home to roost in USA. With its $100 Trillion unfunded liability, many more trillions of dollars of Muni Bonds, almost 100% official debt to GDP ratio, destruction is staring at the face of USA. Many of my American friends think that USA is the best house in the bad neighbourhood. Actually, it is the best camouflaged booby-trap in a jungle.   

Leaking world

In a ZIRP environment, the only solution left to the Fed and politicians is to print more money. Already the money supply is running at 9% and yet we see deflation all around. The 10 year yield at the height of the economic crisis in 2008 was 2.10 % and now it is 1.67 %. So the bond market thinks that we are closer to a disaster now than we were at 2008. Every successive QE has demonstrated the law of diminishing return and just to get back to 1400 level of SPX, Bernanke will have to pump another trillion dollar. Even if he does that, nothing will change. And yet he will do it because his political master wants him to do so. The long term 30 year cycle of bond yield has topped now and in a matter of weeks and months, we will see yields rising.  Time to scale in TBT.

The short term target remains as we discussed and nothing has changed. We might see a lower low on Monday before we shoot up one more time. If I think there is a trade worth taking, I will send the information through Twitter. The real damage will come after that which will force the hands of Bernanke. Barring one day, June 4th, there has been no panic in the market so far and just for this reason, I think selling is not over.

Those of you who swear by TA I have a nice article for you from Brian Shannon. Brian wrote a book on Technical Analysis:

The market is tricky, and it seems so even more lately. Technical analysis is often misinterpreted as an exact science, it is merely a tool which allows us to determine potential price based scenarios before we commit our money to a position.

Lately we have seen a lot of technical analysis misused. From a couple of closes below the 200 day moving average being interpreted as bearish, to a couple closes above the 50 day moving average being interpreted as bullish, or believing that one can buy the break above the “neckline” if the inverted head and shoulder pattern and then kick back and wait for the price objective to be met. These examples of ‘failed technical analysis’ are “proof” by doubters that technical analysis is useless. If you are going to succeed in the markets, risk management should be your first priority, regardless of what your timeframe is. I consider technical analysis to be the finest risk management tool that anyone can use if they really understand the psychology of the formation of patterns rather than focusing on pattern recognition alone.

Also from Tuesday’s post — As I often point out, moving averages should not be used as a stand alone tool, but they give us a great reference point to compare price to. We want to objectively observe how price acts around those levels on shorter term timeframes The same goes for trendlines, price patterns, oscillators, Fibonacci, etc We want to be aware of these key levels which motivate others to take action so we can ANTICIPATE the likely scenarios, but wait for price confirmation before we PARTICIPATE and put our money at risk.

Price is objective, we often we are not.

So let us be objective and be aware of the bigger picture. Time is running out.

Hope you are having fun in this beautiful weekend. Stay sharp and filter the noise. Thanks for reading http://bbfinance.blogspot.com/ . Please forward / re-tweet / post it on your wall and join me in twitter. (Twitter @ BBFinanceblog)(Stocktwits: Worldoffinance)