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 Bears’ Darkest Hour

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"The rich get richer. That's the law of the land." – Ed Moss – Glengarry Glen Ross

The Dow is lurching toward 11,000 while bears are getting burned, tarred, feathered, and maimed across the globe. Actually, I'm not sure if the quantity of bears on the globe merits the use of the plural anymore.

Ever since the gruesome first week of March, I've been in defensive/hunker-down/survive-at-all-costs mode. I've managed to use the double-bullish instrument SSO today with good results, although I finally cried "Uncle" on my IWM short, since there isn't any clearly-defined stop-loss point anymore that isn't light years away.

I will say, regarding the Russell, that it seems to be within a hair's breadth of touching its broken trendline. That line, fractured on January 22nd, is an important one. Given the almost vertical rise since February 5th (which is a date I will never forget in my lifetime……..), who is to say whether it will hold or not.

0317-rut

The Intriguing SCO/SPY Relationship

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Earlier today, I bought the ultra-bearish-on-crude-oil ETF symbol SCO. A little while later, I assumed it had gotten smacked down hard, since the stock market was so strong, and I was surprised to see it was up about 1% from where I bought it, in spite of the market's overall strength.

I did a comparison of SCO to SPY and saw the interesting relationship these two have had recently. SCO has been channeling nicely between about $12.25 and $16.70 for half a year now. It appears that whenever SCO is at the bottom of its channel, the SPY is at a intermediate peak, and whenever SCO is at the top of its channel, the SPY is at an intermediate low.

0317-sco

Breakfast Breakthrough (by Nathaniel Goodwin)

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Nothing gets me more excited in the morning than turning on Bloomberg and watching Deirdre Bolton; even when she tells me the futures are way up and I'm losing money, I hear it from her and I'm cool with it. Don't get me started on that Schatzker guy, I hate when he tells me futures are up.


Well my morning excitement routine changed forever the other day when I got a care package from mom, Deirdre will have to take second place on my morning excitement scale. I received something from mother that has rocked my mornings. It's the Eggo Star Trek waffles. That is now the reason I look forward to getting up every morning.

 

I ran to my next door neighbor Dr. Ramón’s apartment and woke him up so he could have breakfast with me and admire my waffles, he was equally impressed. I finished up breakfast and pulled up a chart to see what was going on with Kellogg's, I could already tell by this product that their fundamentals were solid.

 

The chart is pretty boring, but I can see a chance for a quick 5-6% increase soon maybe more. Dr. Ramón said it looks like a possible head and shoulders formation, but I don't think volume is confirming that. (I also don't think Dr. Ramón is even a real licensed doctor) I believe it goes up first.


K 

 

 I'm not a fundamentals kind of guy, but when I saw and ate this product, I'm sold. Fundamentally, I see the sky's the limit for K and their Star Trek waffles; the chart says maybe 5-6% or more. If it breaks support, down a bit. Nothing real fast up or down, but good risk reward. Here are some great waffle photos:


KirkSpock 

CommunicatorWaffle 

DeltaWaffle 

EarthWaffle 

NeroWaffle 

ProsperWaffle 

Defense is the Best Offense (By Ryan Mallory)

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If you are looking for some conservative plays out there, thinking that there are pending storms on the horizon in the economy, I would look no further than the list below. I've run a screen to find those stocks least affected by the markets mood's and emotions, and are to be considered the best of the best stocks to be long in during times of market instability and uncertainty.

Biggest representative on the list are the drug companies – which isn't a surprise based on their never-ending necessity to the worldwide population, and the fact that there will always be a need for ailments to sicknesses in general. My favorite stock out of the bunch below is Teva Pharm (TEVA), the Israeli-based company that specializes in generic drugs. In fact I would consider them one of my favorite stocks of all-time.

Cigarette companies continue to hold a respectable presence on the list as does the energy sector. Overall, I like the list and think that there are a lot of solid plays to work from, especially if we get a short-term pullback in this market.

Originally posted on my blog at SharePlanner.com