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.

Going Down Greek Style…..Evil Plan 69.0 (by BDI)

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Khajuraho_69

Well my fellow Slope-a-Dopes, it seems EP 67.0 (Stroking Hell Fires) is in full force, yet the bulging erection will not stand for long. The high pressure QE enlargement pump has raised the limp candle stick once again, but how far can it gap up?  We all know that the synthetically induced Viagra effect will eventually wear off, at which point the engaged Greek Goddess pictured above will quickly lose her grip and all interest in the phallic stone object. The well endowed Mr. Market will reach peak orgasmic heights early into the week, only to rapidly deflate as he pulls out towards the end of the week.  Blow me!

BDI must spend some "quality" time with his very own Hellenic Goddess this weekend (Editor's note: clearly even BDI makes time to get freaky), so this will be brief.  My take on next week goes as follows:

GreeceElections_2_wideThe final Greek election results, no matter how they turn out, will provide welcome relief as markets hate uncertainty. Contrary to all the fear mongering, should the hard left win big, be advised that Alexis Tsipras has never once stated that he wants out of the EZ / EURO. On the other hand, if the vote is very close, be advised that PASOK & ND have openly stated that they are willing to join forces. So you see, a new ruling coalition will be formed one way or the other, and thus the EU technocrats will finally be able to negotiate/re-negotiate the bailout package once and for all. However you want to slice it, extend & pretend will be the final product, and traders will be "reassured" for the moment. The market will positively reflect this long awaited conclusion by Monday afternoon.

G20-summit-los-cabos-mexico-2012-e1338852242314Next up, the G20 meeting in Los Cabos, Mexico. This highly anticipated meeting of the great minds of our times, will generate much fiesta fan fare at first.  New global growth initiatives & spending pledges will be boldly announced for all the world to go gaga over. And most importantly, the long overdue critical programs / timelines for further EU fiscal & financial consolidation will be loudly proclaimed as the new Messianic commandments which will rescue the entire globe from all evil & harm. Again here, equity traders will act with over exuberance at all this "wonderful" news. The market should continue to lurch forward Tuesday in a herky jerky manner as each grand gesture is made public. Having Benny Big Bucks on deck won't hurt either.


Ben_bernanke_luncheonHump day morning we will wake up in a fog, with a heady hang over from the previous 48hrs of non stop partying. By high noon, we will crawl our way back to the restaurant bar hoping that Benny the bald bartender will open the doors early, offering up a copious QE brunch served with tall spicy Bloody Marys loaded with Grey Goose liquid vodka, all garnished with a large lemon twist. Later that afternoon however, after having stuffed our selves silly and having slurped down six of those sizeable spiked tomato juices, we will begin to feel very queasy indeed, ending our three day binge on our knees with our heads buried in the toilet, disgorging all the over indulgences before we can pee.

So you see Dopes of Hope, our raging bull hard on to 1360 will not last the week.

Evil Plan 69.0…..will cut your sex drive right back down to size towards 1269.

Sex-drive-01 (1)
        BDI SOH's Idiot Savant 

Trading In The Matrix (by Market Sniper)

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Most are familiar with the movie series The Matrix in which reality was totally divorced from perception. I believe we are faced with the same situation when we, as traders, engage the markets now.

Formerly  relatively free markets have been replaced by The Matrix. Markets that, over a long period of time, reacted to fundamentals and over shorter periods of time reacted to supply and demand factors no longer exist. All of that has been replaced by The Matrix leading some to even question the validity of technical analysis.

Does it not seem that what used to work fairly well no longer does? Or works so sporadically as to call the usefulness of what we used to do into question? Does volume matter with the advent of dark pool trading and high frequency trading  (HFT) machines? Does it seem that things no longer trend well at all? When you do identify a trend, it tends to end abruptly? Seeing a lot of chart patterns that used to work well fail more consistently than leading to the next technical  expectation as to direction?

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