This is from my Amazon account. And, no, I have no idea why.
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.
Well, That Was Quick………..
Keep It Coming
I bought puts yesterday when the market was up 320. It closed up 416.
I bought more this morning when the market was up 50. It then proceeded to go up over 100.
So I'm certainly not getting these things are the cheapest price possible, and they are in the red so far. But I'm honestly totally cool with that. I am basing these purchases on the notion that this is a big bear market rally and is simply another profit opportunity.
Close-Up IWM Fibonacci
I notice one thing I said in last night's post got the attention of a few commenters (including Winace, who described this blog as having become a "clan", which I find a disappointing assessment). I wrote about my "distaste for trading against the primary trend". Others jumped in and said that's ridiculous, because I traded against the bullish trend for so long.
You are right, and that was poorly phrased. But I can also say honestly that I have a "distaste for losses", and one should not assume I've never lost money in my life. In any case, we all know that trading against the primary trend is a mistake. So that was really the only point I was trying to make.
As for this morning, we got a very early bounce (about 50 points higher on the Dow) to tack onto yesterday's monster rally, but as of this writing (merely 15 minutes into the open) it seems to be backing away from a retracement line. This is a very short-term line, drawn from the peak of February 1 down to the bottom made a couple of days ago. But the number of "hits" on these retracements seems to give it some credibility, so I'll be watching these levels.
Here's a longer-term view, so you can see the basis of this minute-bar based retracement.
Melt-Up
As is often the case during the bounces: (a) I was right about its coming (b) I didn't profit from it. Seeing the bounce come was relatively a piece of cake. I've repeatedly shown over the past few days how the indexes have gotten beaten down to very clean support levels. It was high time for a rally.
My failure to profit from it comes from two places. One is a distaste for trading against the primary trend. And two is losses on both Friday and Monday to "play the bounce" (these losses were small, but losses nonetheless). Indeed, moments before the close on Monday, I placed a trade for a substantial position in Russell 2000 April calls, but I set a limit price that wasn't met, and it was never filled. So it goes.
The key difference between, say, a year ago and now is this – – – I love rallies! I love 'em to pieces! Because, just as bulls like to "buy on the dips" during a bull market, bears love to sell into strength in a bear market. I'd much rather be being puts after a day like today (with the Dow up an incredible 416.66 points) than the day prior.
Observe the tinted area below. This is what I call, to coin a phrase, the Rectangle of Resistance. It is our ally.
A similar situation is found in broader indexes.
I held on to virtually all my positions today (and I got smacked around good, to be sure, but it only meant my obscene profits got less so). I intend to reload in the land of gold and oil.
The only really "green spot" among my portfolios today was in my IRA account, whose contents you'll see here on the blog under Long Positions. With the latest Fed attempt to rev things up, battered stocks had a fine day.
I'm pooped from my business trip, so I'll close here. I'm sure the comments section is probably stark raving mad (particularly since Beanie finally had the opportunity to spout off about how bullish things were), but I haven't had time to meander in there. In a day or two, blocking should be in place, and we can get rid of some of the other riff-raff polluting our corner of the world here.
