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.

SPX:VIX RATIO — The REAL Test for Bulls

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I last wrote about the SPX:VIX ratio in my post of October 15th.

As shown on the 20-Year Daily ratio chart below, bulls have pushed the price back up to close out this week at major resistance around the 120.00 level. Failure to hold 120.00 could very well see price re-test the 60.00 level, or lower…watch for panic selling of equities should the 60.00 level be breached and held.

The REAL test for sustained market bullishness will be whether price can reclaim and hold the 150.00 level, which was a milestone level this ratio reached before succumbing to pressures of the 2007/08 financial crisis.

From Resistance to Support

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After the explosive eight-day surge in the markets (following the bottom last Wednesday), a whole cache of ultrashort ETF charts looks very interesting on the long side. Below are just a couple of examples, and take note how cleanly resistance has magically changed into support. Next week, particularly Wednesday’s FOMC announcement, will clarify whether these “long” positions (although actually short the market) are as profitable as they might appear.

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Pandora’s Box

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This whole week has been a vomit comet, so it’s hard to make any generalizations about the current market, so I’ll just mention individual stocks. Besides AMZN, another nice winner for me today was Pandora. The chart was so-so, but intuitively (and this is a bit unusual for me to use anything but the chart as a rationale) I felt with all the effort Apple was putting into Internet radio, Pandora might not be in a great spot. Whatever the reason, the stock is tumbling, and I’m hanging on to the short.

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