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.

Real Fakeness and the Hanging Man

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Those of you who have read my work for a while know that I have a paradoxical attitude which is not unique among Slopers; that is: loving America and really disliking Americans. Or at least disliking a lot of what constitutes American culture.

I came face to face with this not long ago when I did something I hardly ever do, which is fire up the television (ever since the series 24 went off the air, there's really nothing in particular I watch, although I dutifully pay my cable bill month after month). The show that was on was The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.

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How YM, ES, NQ & TF Closed the Final OPEX for 2011

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Today saw the YM, ES, NQ & TF close out their 4th quarter options contract for 2011. Each candle on the chartgrid below represents a one-Month Options Expiry period. Most of the price action after the large red July-August OPEX candle has taken place inside that candle's range. The last three candles reflect indecision in these markets on consecutively lower volumes (large upper and lower wicks).

Unless renewed optimism enters equity markets on a global level in the new year, we could see these e-mini indices mirror a drop similar to the one that occurred in 2008 after the arrows that I've added. Granted, they may not fall to the same extent, but a fall (and, potentially, a substantial one) is possible, nonetheless…at least to the bottom of their Bollinger Bands.

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