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.

She Has Yellow Teeth

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Well, besides having a government that the world doesn't respect very much, now we have something else in common with Pakistan – – – – the need for the government to outlaw short-selling in order to protect the whiny, childish, needful bulls. Allow me to point it out on the front page today:

Now just think about this for a minute. Can you imagine a creation of a downtick rule which demands that a person can't buy a stock unless it moves down in price? Or can you imagine the government forbidding going long a momentum stock, simply because it just seems to keep going higher and higher?

Of course you can't. And the reason you can't is because the bulls need mommy and daddy (the government) to wet-nurse them when things aren't going their way. Bulls have all the advantages, including a corrupt government on their side. So when things don't go their way, they whine and pout until chrome domes Paulson and Bernanke come to the rescue.

You might think I'm upset because the Dow was up 270 points today. On the contrary! Those of you who listened to my video heard me loud and clear calling for a major bounce higher. I said I had never been more confident of a bounce being in store. So I am delighted, thrilled, pleased, and contented that the surge happened. Terrific! It just creates more shorting opportunities! Added to which, my patented $SLIX indicator – the traffic on this site – flashed a clear "buy!" signal yesterday:

A lot of this was driven by an explosive rally in banks. Wells Fargo was up nearly one-third. Wells Fargo! This is a old, staid bank! And it moved higher on enormous volume, too. Long term, it's clear the financial system is heading for disaster. I don't think we've seen anything yet. These countertrend rallies are all just part of the unfolding collapse.

I did three main things with my trading today:

  1. Took about 40% of my positions off the table with respect to energy (lightening positions, taking profits)
  2. Took some profits early in the day on a handful of issues (and a loss – much more modest than I expected! – on takeover target ANR)
  3. Very late in the day, re-entered a few positions, although the vast majority of my "hit list" is waiting in the wings, probably for tomorrow

I think the Dow has a decent amount of resistance at about the 11,430 level, shown below.

Sorry to bore you with another $UTIL graph, but this pattern just keeps getting more and more likely. It points to explosively higher interest rates, from what I can interpret.

I lightened up quite a bit on energy shorts today, with terrific profits. I think we're in for a bit of a breather here.

Modest resistance for the S&P is at 1,270. It becomes much firmer at 1,315.

I took half my profits on ICE yesterday and the other half today. I've drawn two necklines, and time will tell which is the real one. Obviously I am going to gobble up puts like a pig if it gets to the 110-115 area.

 I did re-enter one put today (having taking profits on it just yesterday!) – Blackstone Group. I'm cheating just a little bit on this neckline. I hope my flexibility isn't punished.

STT was a firm retracement today. I'm ready to re-enter my short.

I've already short Textron. This looks like a very predictable pullback. Sweet.

Another "STT-like" retracement is BLK.

I'm going to re-enter SCHW short, provided it doesn't push higher than the right shoulder.

This is a so-so graph. Not bad for a short. Meh.

OK, that's it. I've been charting since before the sun came up. Enough! Bulls, thanks for the rally. Feel free to tack on some more. I'm waiting for you.

Dance on Vaseline

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I haven't mentioned my book in a while, so I'll do so here, since a lot of readers might not know about it – – – if you have an interest in ProphetCharts (which I use to compose this blog) or in my approach to technical analysis, you might want to check out Chart Your Way to Profits. Look through the reviews on Amazon, and I think you'll find most people really enjoy it. OK, that's the end of the plug. On with today's videos


Done with GOOG

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I had puts in both my accounts on GOOG, and I've closed them, simply because it got close enough to my $500 price target (the low for today so far was 501.10). Not to say that it couldn't go a lot lower – remember that earnings come out Thursday afternoon, and I can only imagine what kind of carnage would come out of an earnings disappointment. But I am trying to trade based on charts, not just luck and hope. Hence, thus closing.

Hypothesis Working Well

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Over the past weeks, I've been working with three general notions:

  • Short energy
  • Short ags
  • Day-trade indexes ($RUT, $NDX, $SPX) but generally avoid overnight positions

 This has been working very, very well. Today, particularly, energy is taking a beating, so it's doing marvelous things.

I haven't even had time to review my 86 (gad, 86) positions, although obviously I've got stops on all of them. But I have a feeling I'd better close some of them out before it's too late.