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.
YHOO Ain’t A-Goin’ Nowhere
A couple of weeks ago, the Silicon Valley went completely ga-ga over the fact that Marissa Mayer left Google and took the helm at Yahoo.
There are a couple of things about this that spring to mind.
First is: Yahoo sucks. I have been online since 1981, and I've been plopped in front of a computer tens of thousands of hours since then, and I imagine I've spent a grand total of 5 hours – tops – on any Yahoo site. Even in the earliest days of the web, I thought Yahoo was suck-tacular, and I've never understood its success. At all.
Sleep-It-Off Bar
Re-Election Politics and The Market Outcome (by Ryan Mallory)
If you are like me, and live in a swing-state for this 2012 election, you are absolutely sick and tired of the ads, smears, lies, and just everything politics. I give more thought to moving to North Dakota every time an election cycle rolls around just to avoid the onslaught of ads, mailings, and phone calls.
But my question to you is, how does the market fare when it comes to a President seeking re-election? What is the norm and how does the market tend to react. As a result, I looked at every successful and unsuccessful re-election bid, dating back 32 years to to the Carter Vs. Reagan election to see if there was anything worth noting particularly from August through November (Elections occur on the second Tuesday of the month).
Jimmy Carter vs. Ronald Reagan: 1980
Despite the 70's being pretty miserable for the economy, from August to November things seemed 'suddenly favorable' when Carter's re-election came up. In particular the early part of August. What this chart should show you though (and later with Bush Sr.) is that despite a market rally into the election, it is no guarantee that a President will be re-elected.
Treasury Bonds Pattern Better than Ever
Although I covered my TLT short yesterday, I re-entered it today in a bigger way once the ZB nailed its 149.25 neckline. This was a "to-the-penny" kind of retracement.
Looking at the TLT chart itself, my target remains about $122. It's going to take a little patience, but I think we're going ot get there.
TLT is my only big short right now; my dozens of other positions are, as you might have guessed, scattered amongst many tiny equity shorts.
