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.

Coping

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What's a Tim to do?

What does a bearish swing trader do in an environment that feels about as hostile to him as a panel of Harvard Law School constitution professors would be against Christine O'Donnell? How does one cope when the environment is utterly different than one's style?

The pat answer, of course, is "adapt", and I'm certainly doing that as best I can. But let me be clear about this mutation.

What I Am Doing

+ Paying far more attention to the Euro than I ever have in my life;

+ Balancing my shorts with long positions (I have about 25% of my portfolio in longs);

+ Staying relatively "light" and away from margin (I'm about 75% committed right now);

+ Keeping my stops fresh;

+ Making good use of GLD and GDX as day-trading or overnight trade tools (funny enough, I'm short GDX and long GLD at the moment);

+ Keeping my ears tuned to the Slope comment section for ideas, insight, and information

What I Am Not Doing

+ Buying momentum stocks simply because they are going higher (PCLN, AAPL, BIDU, CMG, and so forth); it's tempting to want to buy, for instance, PCLN, since it seems to go up very day, but no, I refuse. I'm not going to get sucked into a March 2000 environment. No, thank you.

What I Have Ceased Doing

+ Paying attention to mass media Elliott Wave predictions. Absolutely worthless.

I am in "get through this" mode, and I will remain so until the coast is clear. This has not been an easy time for me – far from me – but I'm still very much in the battle, and I am managing my risk and – – on the whole! – – my emotions so they do not get the better of me.

I'd be interested in hearing how everyone else is doing, both good and bad.

A Couple of Comments on Comments

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The community is what makes Slope of Hope great, and the basis for the community is Slope's own comments system.

People have been making good use of the new system, but I wanted to offer a couple of reminders. First, it's really important to click "Like" on stuff you like. It only takes a moment, and it's really valuable to the rest of the community.

Giving a comment a Like does two good things: (1) It makes it really easy for other readers to find the best comments; there have been many occasions where I didn't feel like reading 700 comments, so I simply clicked Sort by Rating – Highest First to see the best stuff (2) It boosts the commenter's rating on the system. Let's face it, if someone offers a really good comment (or a link, a chart, or what have you), they deserve a point-up.

So if you see something you like, please invest a moment to express yourself…..

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The other thing I wanted to mention is that if you precede a stock symbol (which, by definition, is in ALL CAPS) with a dollar sign, it will make that stock symbol hyperlink to a lot of other good information about that stock, including a chart. The dollar sign won't appear in the comment itself, but it will make the symbol clickable and, thus, much more useful.

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The Sloper community is unique on the web, and the comments system is the glue that helps us stick together. Following these two tips will make the comments system a richer experience for all of us; thanks!

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