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.

By God, It’s That Analog Again

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OK, fine, I'm obsessed. It's 11 o'clock in the evening, I really should be in bed, but I keep staring at my freshest take on the 1937-1942 analog. Here's my newly-labeled Past:

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And here's my newly-labeled Present:

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Some observations:

+ The behavior of the analog from points 0 to 12 is, to me, breathtaking;

+ The behavior from 12 to 17 is still astonishing, but the waves of the Present are more muted than those of the Past; I attribute this to historically unprecedented government intervention. The relationships are still there, but they are somewhat softer.

+ This tells me that point 17 – that is, the high in late April – is not going to be overtaken. S&P 1250 is not going to happen. In fact, if this analog holds, such a figure will not be seen for years.

The big question for me is whether the big drop (circled in red in the Past graph) transpired late in June, or if it still is going to take place. I am not comfortable labeling anything past 17 at this point.

I had said earlier this month that the big drop must have already happened. I'm having second thoughts. I cannot divine how to compare the activity from late April until now with the same chunk of the analog in the late 1930s.

The principal point of this post is to make clear that I am not convinced a drop into the low 900s this year is off the table yet.

How to Join in Comments

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I've been using computers for over 30 years, and in after so much time, it's easy to become insensitive to what seems easy and what seems hard when using these machines. Far too often I've heard folks who are lurkers (that is, people who read Slope but don't comment) that they don't know how to get into the comments section. Well, let me break it down for you……

First, look in the upper right corner of your browser. (UPDATE: it's been relocated to just ABOVE comments now; scroll down a bit; you'll see it!) See that red stripe? Click on Create Account:

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A dialog box will appear. Tell the system your first name, last name, email, username, and password. Also make up a screen name. If you are Lindsay Lohan, but you don't want people to know you are here, you can use any screen name at all (LiLo will do nicely), so don't worry about using your real first and last names.

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You'll get an email confirming you used a functioning address. Once you've done that, you can spruce up your account with an avatar or other information about yourself. Click on the Settings button in your now-proud-green (as opposed to shameful-red) bar in the upper right. (UPDATE again, it's just above comments now)

 

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You can click on Profile, Picture, Notifications, Account, and Password to adjust any of those settings. The most important thing is your picture, since a default avatar suggests you are boring and uninteresting, and that certainly isn't the case, is it?

0927-createPooh 

 

Lastly………..what's with all the military ranks? Well, those quickly show how (a) active and (b) well-liked a person is on Slope. A person who does a lot of posts and gets a lot of Likes gets a higher rank. When you're just starting out, you won't have any rank at all, but be a little active, and you'll be a commissioned officer in no time!

So join the conversation! It's what makes Slope great.

Charts of the Week – Financials (by Mike Paulenoff)

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One sector to watch in a bullish scenario is the financials, which have lagged in this rally and are due to play catch up. Leading the way has been the Technology Select Sector SPDR (XLK), up 13% from 20.50 to 23.12 in recent weeks. It may be a little extended at the moment for a long trade, while the Financial Select Sector SDPR (XLF) is up just 9.8%. The XLF has huge resistance at 15.00-15.06, but if it can manage to take that out, the financial ETF should accelerate.

Within the financials, Bank of America (BAC) has a lot of potential upside into the 15.20 area if it can claw its way above 14.00/05 from Friday close at 13.60. Conversely, a break below Friday’s low of 13.30 will weaken the pattern, while Thursday’s low of 13.12 would be a sell signal.

JP Morgan (JPM) looks even better than Bank of America, but it has major resistance at 41.20-41.70. If it gets through that 41.70 level, you could make the case it has completed a major W pattern, otherwise known as a double-bottom. With the double bottom at around 35.50, a measured upside follow-through projects to a maximum target of 48.



Originally published on MPTrader.com.