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.

Euro and USO

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Just a couple of quick "for what it's worth" charts…….

First is our old favorite, EUR/USD. This has been all over the map today. It shot up strong this morning, then it took a dip (I find it interesting that GDX and GLD have been absolute resolution in the face of that weakness; they barely even blinked). I've said it before, and I'll say it again: until the EUR/USD falls away (and, thus, indicates a stronger dollar), we're not going to get any sustained equity downturn.

0903-eur

Another chart is of USO. This ETF, an "old faithful" for swing trading, has broken its trendline. Nothing dramatic, but I think the energy markets are starting to tip their hand (or, in the case of UNG, both hands have been chopped off).

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Gold Caution

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Well, I feel like I'm betraying a friend, because GDX was very, very good to me over the past 20 hours – – – but I would keep a cautious eye on precious metals, still.

0903-gld

I know "golden Gary" would chuckle at this, since he has said repeatedly trying to fine-tune and time trading precious metals is a sucker's game but……….I'm more of a "bird in the hand" kind of guy myself. So I've taken my handsome GDX profits.

On a more general note, I've really got to say – emphatically! – that I think it's somewhat telling how very obvious and clean /ES opportunities just fall to pieces on the long side recently. That's unusual! We had a nice little basing pattern, as indicated by my prior post, but that's looking much weaker right now. I think the bulls are starting to get their first true taste of frustration in, oh, about the past half-year.

Professional’s Input on Natural Gas

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I read your blog almost every day and enjoy the insight.  I trade a little bit (when I have some time), and follow some of your Slopers recommendations and strategies.  I have posted a couple of times recently.

I read your post recently on Natural Gas, and thought I would send you a note....{professional information removed at author's request}…..  

I wanted to point out that UNG is not the best way to play the eventual price rebound.  There is some serious contango in the market (so much so that the current price of $2.73 for Oct is just under 60% of the Dec contract at $4.69).   Prior to current month expiry, the UNG ETF “rolls” the contract to the next month.  When this roll takes place, they sell the current month at say $2.73 and buy the next month at $3.89 (current price of Nov).  When they do this the price of UNG does not change as it ends up buying a higher priced contract for which to trade around (they try and match the percentages of the change in price).  Effectively, your cost base gets eaten away by the contango and you lose out on the current contract price.  The only way it makes sense to buy an ETF like this is when there is backwardation in the market of the underlying commodity.

Further, the better way to play this would be to look at HNU in Canada, which is 2X the daily change in nat gas.  The benefit here is that you get the exchange rate change in a falling market, but the underlying ETF still works off the percentage change of NYMEX Natural Gas.  Still has the same contango issue.