So far things are going as anticipated. No major surprise yet. The 1300 line held in SPX and the gap in SPY has not yet been tested. It is as if the last 15 trading seasons did not happen. Why last 15, we are back to where we were on January 31st of this year. All the euphoria of March now seems like a distant dream. The moods are as gloomy as it can get and yet folks are so conditioned with the Bernanke tonic that there is no real fear or panic in the market.
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.
What Happens When Free Becomes Costly? (by Mark St. Cyr)
Newspapers were one of the first monolith business models to feel the squeeze in this new age of media consumption. Then like only a disruptive business model can, free content slammed into anything fit or not fit to print. It’s hard to beat free at any price is it not? But as Bob Dylan famously twanged, “Times they are a-changin’ “
At first take you might say well of course this is old news, but I submit as everyone is currently running in the direction of giving away their content for free, there’s a strong yet subtle change in the wind. And that change is the possible demise or end of “free” as we now know it.
Trading as Character’s X-Ray
I've pondered in the past how much we really know ourselves, or each other. Real-life heroes, for instance, seem to me to be born that way, and fate provided an opportunity for them to do something extraordinary that most people wouldn't do. The person who leaps between the subway tracks and puts his body over a child who fell down there wasn't necessarily trained to do such a thing. I don't think there's anything specific to their gender, ethnicity, racial background, or anything else that drives them to behave heroically. In that split-second, where most people's desire for self-preservation would have held them back, some individuals choose to do something with what we might describe as a very bad risk to reward ratio.
One-Two Punch
This will be quick, sloppy, and probably all you're going to get until the close.
I came into the day with one gigantically huge long position – gold – and Thank Jesus for that. Everything else is getting creamed, thus my 61 shorts are happy as little girls.
I've mention OKS as a short about a billion times. It's really breaking down now.
So the one-two punch is one long (precious metals soaring) and tons of shorts (everything else pooing all over itself).
I'll see you after the close. Keep doing whatever it is you're doing.
Dark Stormclouds (by Springheel Jack)
Friday was always likely to be a retracement or consolidation day as I mentioned on Friday morning. SPX rallied to close at the IHS neckline and that was neither bullish nor bearish really. A strong Sunday night on ES to follow through would have been bullish, but ES has dropped to make marginal new lows at the moment. That delivers a potential W bottom on strongly positive 60min RSI divergence, but that's only IF we see a reversal back up here. If we see Thursday's low undercut by much during trading hours that will look bearish, and will become rapidly more so if we drop further as I was saying on Friday. Here's the setup on the SPX 60min:
