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.

The Nutrisystem Example

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Nutrisystem is one of about a thousand charts I follow. I hadn't really done anything with the stock, but I was following it with interest since it had, from October to December, climbed about 50% in price, and subsequently retraced the entire gain back to its former resistance level. I have tinted in green a huge open gap in the chart, which it never came even close to closing.

0302-ntribefore
What's interesting about the chart above is what happened in the blue tinted area. It's perfectly OK for a stock to retrace to a former resistance zone – – particularly one so long-lived. What isn't OK is what happened below, tinted in magenta:

0302-ntriafter

This was a huge "heads-up" to anyone either long the stock or contemplating going long the stock – – mainly because What Was Supposed To Happen Didn't Happen (that is, a continued climb away from the support).

Today NTRI lost over 15%. The good news for technical analysis is that this debacle was telegraphed over a week in advance by the price action mentioned above.