Originally published on TheTechTrader.com.
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.
Will the 2012 Olympics Solve Britain’s Debt Woes?
The 2012 Olympic Games will open this Friday in London, England. This news article mentions a cost to the British taxpayer of more than nine billion pounds, with a hoped-for return of 13 billion pounds over four years (as suggested by Prime Minister David Cameron). This seems like a pretty big gamble "at a time when Britons are struggling with a double-dip recession, rising unemployment and severe public spending cuts."
Data released on Wednesday shows that Britain's GDP dropped further into negative territory at levels seen in mid-2009, as shown on the graph below.
The Daily chart below of London's FTSE Index shows market action as at Tuesday's close of 5499.23. Major support lies at 5500, at the moment, and market action from mid-2011 is, basically, in a large trading range, defined by a triangle…in fact, this range extends back to 2009-2010 and is forming a large diamond pattern…potentially a topping pattern with a 1300 point range.
A drop and hold below this diamond could very well send London's equity index tumbling, possibly by 1300 points from 5500 down to the 4200 level, or lower…one to watch, along with future GDP data releases, as well as Libor fallout, over the coming weeks.
Corning Game Hen
It's getting difficult to know what to blog about because I have so much to say. With all these positions (into the triple digits, as you know), I am paradoxically tongue-tied.
In spite of that, here's one standout that I'd like to present – Corning. I shorted them a few days ago, and they are down over 7% today. More important, the stock has violated pretty much the final support level propping it up, leaving it vulnerable to a waterfall slide.
As for my day so far – – it was discomfiting coming into the day so radically short – particularly since the ES had laid waste to its lows from yesterday afternoon and was disgustingly higher – – but I pledged that I would strap on my king-sized gonads this quarter, and they have served me well. As of this very moment, I am up 0.46% on the day versus a market which is down 0.25%. That, for me, is gratifying.
A Song for Bankers the World Over
Bullish Options (by Springheel Jack)
Well we got the test of the last SPX low that I've been looking for, but we haven't seen that low broken yet, and the RSI setup on the 15min and 60min charts looks promising for a bounce so we'll see. On the daily chart SPX found some support at the 50DMA and closed above the 1335 IHS neckline again. That neckline has now been tested so many times that I'm inclined to write the IHS off altogether, but at the least it is obviously a very strong support level. If we see more downside the lower bollinger band and the 200DMA are at 1320 and 1315 respectively:
