Huge. Ginormous. Christine Romer big.
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.
Psyched Out?
Well, I'm in a difficult spot. I'm looking at the biggest dollar gain in my portfolio in at least two months. I have 200 positions – – almost all of them bearish, and almost all of them profitable today. My daily percentage gain as of this moment is 3.57%
Having suffered through the last 9 weeks of government-induced insanity and fraud, I'm almost inclined to hit a Close Everything button (if they were such a thing), but the rational part of me realizes that many of these positions have just started their fall.
The right thing to do, as always, is simply tighten up stops. I've got to say, though, this is an incredibly uncomfortable place to be, because in the span of three days I've recaptured virtually all the lost ground of the past two months, and it's tempting to lock it in. Decisions, decisions………
The Phone has Rung
Good as Gold
I've mentioned my fondness for the work of Gary Savage on a number of occasions. Day by day, as I've read his work and looked at the charts, I have come to move over to the side of the gold bulls which Gary proudly inhabits.
I had a couple of reasons for being bearish on gold. One of them is that, looking at the $XAU and $HUI, it seems they are both against some formidable challenges given how far they've come and how much overhead supply there is. Here's the $XAU as an example:
The other reason is that I do put a certain amount of stock in the folks at Elliott Wave, and they've been tooting the "gold is heading to under $700" horn for many weeks now.
But one can't really argue with gold's persistent strength. And I put that in bold, because it seems to be standing out these days with respect to being able to climb in the face of the diminishment of other assets (oil, stocks, financials). Just look at these two:
GOLD in particular (as I tweeted a couple of days ago) has been remarkable, having reached lifetime highs the past couple of days. A challenge for me is to be able to buy anything at a new lifetime high, but I've been doing this long enough to understand that new highs often beget more new highs.
Finally, although I am a chartist to the death, I do respect Gary's macroeconomic rationale for believing in gold. It makes sense, to me, at this point in economic history.
Buy ‘n’ Hold
If anyone needed living proof of the fallacy of buy & hold, General Motors — makers of the Aztek – – provides it. Click on the "After" to see how this blue-chip stock has fared.
