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.

Current Positioning

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As I'm typing this, the Fed news ("Hey, banks! The money's still free! Come and get it!") is less than an hour away. I've trimmed way back on my positions, and I've gone from all-short to a more even short/long balance. Currently I have:

+ 103 short positions, all of them small (fewer than half of what I started the day with);

+ 4 large long positions (OIH, RTH, FXE, and – Lord forgive me – BP);

+ Stops updated across the board, with a 79.2% portfolio commitment (down from 140%)

I'm going to simply go through my watch lists now as I await the announcement and its spasms.

The Ugly Truth

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What's going on right now seems pretty clear.

Information which is utter nonsense (rosy forecasts from the government, permabull rantings on CNBC, China-will-save-us-all insanity, etc.) has worn really thin. It worked from March 2009 to April 2010. It's not working anymore. The fuel for fools is gone.

Factual information – – even from a source as untrustworthy as our government – – is showing that the economy still stinks. The facts are going to save the bears. Speaking of which, new home sales were dramatically below even the most pessimistic estimates:

0623-sales
 

Perfect Declining Channel on ES (by Springheel Jack)

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I'm a big fan of rising and falling channels for trading, and it has
been a disappointment that in recent weeks there has been a distinct dry
spell on ES for these. No longer, as the decline this week has resolved
into a perfect declining channel:

100623_ES_10min_Declining_Channel

Now the question of course though is whether we are likely to continue
declining from here. On the upper side of the channel, the trendline
reinforces the already strong range resistance trendline at 1101.5. If
that trendline is broken with any confidence then the chances are very
strong that the decline this week is over, and that we should expect a
new short term high over 1130 ES in the near future.

On the other hand if we should reach the lower trendline of the
declining channel, we would have to break through the important support
level at 1084 ES, and that would seriously undermine the idea that this
was just a correction before a continuation upwards. In the short term
that would open up the lower trendline of the next range down at1070.5
ES, and if that was broken then 1048.5.

My view is that this is just a pause on the way up as the USD currency
pairs that I watch, particularly EURUSD, have not yet reached their
upswing targets, but we've already had one return to retest the lows,
and I wouldn't be that surprised to see another.

In terms of EURUSD I posted a chart yesterday showing a falling wedge on
EURUSD that has since broken upwards. These wedges frequently turn out
to have been a diagonal slice of an unrevealed declining channel though,
and this one has been testing the upper trendline of that theoretical
declining channel for the last four hours as I write. If it breaks up
that would be a weakly bullish signal for both EURUSD and equities, and a
further move with confidence above 1.235 would be very bullish.

There is some positive divergence on EURUSD in relation to ES already.
As both rose they established parallel trading ranges, and the first
strong signal for me on Monday that the equities upswing was finishing
was EURUSD breaking support. Yesterday ES broke down into a lower range
and EURUSD did not, which was a very significant positive divergence. If
EURUSD should break that range support at 1.2255 with confidence this
morning, that would be a strong bearish signal for both EURUSD and
equities, and on EURUSD the lower trendline of that range is at 1.2166,
which would be the obvious next target:

100623_EURUSD_60min_Wedge_and_Poss_Channel

I posted a Vix chart yesterday morning showing the likely upswing target
if this is just a pullback and it was reached yesterday. RSI &
stochs both look overbought now:

100623_Vix_60min_Downtrend_Line

Oil generally moves up and down with the market and a falling wedge has
developed on the oil futures (Sept) this week. As with the other falling
wedges though, this might yet resolve into a declining channel and I've
marked in the possible alternate trendlines if that is the case:

100623 Oil Sept 60min Falling Wedge