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.

Chart Taxonomy

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Here I am at the end of a hard week, having just opened up a marvelous 30 year old Glenfiddich that a reader gave to me (thanks, Michael T.!). I hope a few of you were able to join in on the "Spotlight" Tom Sosnoff and I just gave. Those are always fun.

If you did listen in, you heard my point of view on the market – – – the next few months seem so clear to me. I hope my clairvoyance is on the money, so to speak, because it's terribly exciting to me to be able to (presumably) have an understanding of what is going to take place.

For the moment, I am buying stocks. There are some who say the market is going to crash this week. It could. But even those who believe it might crash acknowledge that would be the "nail in the coffin" for this leg of the bear market, and we would then commence to push higher over a period of months. So, crash or not, I'm buying stocks. A lot of them. I just got started today.

There are three interesting flavors of charts I've categorized for the months ahead. Allow me to share these with you.

Caput Scapulique

This is my favorite. It may or may not be an actual head and shoulders pattern, but it is a chart which fell away from a major horizontal support line. I'm tracking about one hundred of these, and by God, they are luscious.

Infractus Versus

I've tracking seventy of these critters – – the breakers of major trendlines. The target price is tougher on these, but I expect a hearty bounce, and I own a lot of these for the time being. I will naturally reverse the position at (hopefully) the right time.

Ceterum

I've also got a grab bag of about fifty stocks which, although not cleanly defined, will still make fantastic shorts once the countertrend rally is over.

Just to be clear, what I'm looking for is a steady, hearty, sustainable rally that lasts more than one freakin' trading session. I intend to take advantage of both sides – – up and then down. If we do this right together, we're all going to make fortunes.

By the way, I've slightly updated my Recommended Reading page, so please check it out. Have a good weekend. I'll see you on Monday.

Cash is Neutral

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Phew. What a week. Again.

My biggest position by far is cash. I haven't done the math, but I'd say it's easily 80%. I have no strong point of view about what's going to happen next week. Some say a huge crash is going to happen. Others say we bottomed yesterday. I'm just going to keep my powder dry, for the most part, until some of the dust clears.

Please note I'm going to be doing a Spotlight Session with Tom Sosnoff at 5:00 EST (one hour after the close). I am completely exhausted, so I imagine a post might not come until this weekend.

I want to say again thank you to everyone who voted for this blog and garnered Slope the coveted top spot. Now that I can see the vote tallies, ummm, it was a bit of overkill, since we had about three times as many votes as the second place winner. But I'm  not complaining! Again, thank you so much.

This Market Takes Too Much Babysitting

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I was really, really hoping we could get a rally that would last more than one day.

Look, I'm a bear, and I love the falling markets and all that good stuff. But Jesus H. Christ, I need some sleep. I'm starting to actually yearn for a bull market now. One where you can buy stocks, update your stocks from time to time, and pretty much just ignore it. Let profits grow steadily higher. This is getting exhausting……and requires way too much "position supervision."

Anyway, I have gone long many (very small) positions; you can check them out on the Long Equities watch list on the right column. Don't get me wrong; it's been another good day. But this is ridiculous.

I Buy. Why? High Fly! What a Guy.

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I'm sorry for the quick, chart-free posts. Here's the summary of my day thus far:

  • Sold ultrashorts first thing this morning; great profit!
  • Bought huge positions in QLD, OIH, and SSO – – all just sold at great profits; I am skeptical of this rally and am not comfortable holding over a weekend.
  • I have bought nearly 100 (yes 100) little bitty $5,000 positions in all kinds of stocks I thought looked attractive. I'll update my watch list with these soon.

I shorted some NQ at 1350 and am watching it fall; if it breaks the 1330 breakout level, it'll really start falling fast.

Efficient Market Hypothesis

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I am still amassing a mountain of symbols to buy; my problem earlier was too much cash, not enough trades. With this many possibilities, not enough cash isn't the problem; in fact, I'm going to have to reduce the size of each position.

I have four accounts, and the most dowdy of them is my IRA. It only permits equity purchases (no options). It has no margin (all trades are cash). Their commissions stink. And their web site is lousy.

In spite of all those disadvantages, here's living proof of the value of technical analysis; this is a little tool they keep on the site to see how you're doing for the year:

So much for the efficient market hypothesis!