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.

Newest Improvements to Comments

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There are a couple of big new features in the comments section on the test site (not live yet).

The first is the ability to enter a trading idea, either long or short. All you need to do is click the Trading Suggestion radio button, choose "buying" or "shorting" from the dropdown, and enter a symbol. The system will track all your longs and shorts, and you're able to close them out at any time. This is just the very beginning of a much larger feature, but it's a cool start.

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Also – – and this is one I'm really excited about – – you can now Highlight or Ignore any Slopers.

For instance, if you really like someone's comments, you can go to their profile and choose Highlight, and from then on, all their comments will be highlighted (emphasized) in the comment thread.

On the other hand, if you've really had just about enough of any Sloper, you can click Ignore in their profile section, and none of their comments will appear (their avatar and name will, just to sustain the hierarchical integrity of the thread, but whatever they typed won't show up).

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If you are not a total n00b and want to tinker with the new features, please try them out on the test site. I've said it before, but it bears repeating – – your account on the test site has nothing to do with your regular account, so if you've never used the test site, you'll need to create another account. In addition, your username and password on the test site are not the same as on the real Slope.

Any bug reports or suggestions, please leave in the comments section on the test site, not here. Thanks, and I'll release these new features to the production site once they're polished up!

The Value of Stops

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I mentioned this in the comments section, but it merits repeating: I am a big believer in stops. I think the notion of "mental stops" is ludicrous, since the entire basis of stops is for them to take you out of a position without any thought or emotion. It's way too easy to talk yourself into "hanging on" if a position moves against you.

Earlier today, I bought a small position (3700 shares) of ONP based on a nice saucer pattern. Not long after, the stock absolutely fell to pieces (which is something one hardly ever sees in the middle of the day). I got stopped out where the arrow is pointing (this is an hourly graph). Even a person who was sincere about executing a "mental stop" would have got a much worse price.

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Chart on SDS (Mike Paulenoff)

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The interesting aspect to the enclosed 15 minute chart of the ProShares UltraShort S&P 500 ETF (NYSE: SDS) is that off of the recent double bottom lows at 25.35/36, the SDS rallies have undergone very "disciplined" pullbacks that have preserved the prior near-term breakout levels. Those levels, which are prior resistance and now support, are at 25.70/80 and then 26.30/20.

This is the sign of a move that is developing directional strength and confidence. At this juncture, the series of higher-highs, and higher-lows during the past few days remains the dominant feature of the extreme near-term price action. As long as the profile remains intact, the SDS pattern deserves the benefit of the doubt on the upside. However, a sustained break of 26.15 will put the developing SDS uptrend into doubt.

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Originally published on MPTrader.com.