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.

Good Grief

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Yesterday I drove the family up to Santa Rosa for a fencing tournament, and since it was going to be a long day, I decided to take my daughter ice skating and to the nearby Charles Schulz museum (I took a couple of photos, shown below). I had been there years before, and I really enjoyed it, but she had never been.

0128-peanutsComics have always been a big part of my life, and I've got many thick volumes of comics that I enjoy. They tend to be more out of the ordinary stuff, such as Zippy and This Modern World, but I've also got my fair share of Dilberts and the like. I've never had any Peanuts, pretty much because they're all stored in my head anyway and I don't need a book.

Indeed, comics are such a big share of my cultural touchpoints that, before Slope, I was seriously going to focus my blog on bitching about comics. I was going to call it The Comics Curmudgeon, and I already had my sights set on inexcusable crap like Garfield, Cathy, and Family Circus. Of course, that blog would have starved itself of material pretty fast, so I never really bothered. The world will never know of Barfy's Theorem and other pontifications I planned.

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The Orchard Ahead

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I'm as tired of talking about Apple as I imagine you are hearing about it, but still – – – – after my insane $440 target was nailed (which garnered press coverage around the world; errr, actually, no; no one cares about such things; they only care about long-haired $1,000/share projections) I'm going to go out on a limb AGAIN and lay out Apple's path. We're heading to the lower 300s.

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I’m With Ackman

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I listened, as I'm sure many of you did, to the childish bitch-slap between Bill Ackman and Carl Icahn last week). I had never listened to either of the men before in my life, but after the slugfest, I felt that Ackman came off as relatively erudite, intelligent, and well-spoken, whereas Icahn came off as a petulant brat (I've seen other polls on this weighty topic, and, strangely, Icahn comes out on top).

In any event, I've kept no secret of my belief that HerbaLife (HLF) is going to plunge, and I've got the puts in my account to back my belief. Listening to the verbal sparring only deepened my conviction. The shorts are the underdog here, and they are threatened from all sides with a squeeze. Bite me.

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Swing Trade Quick Pick (by Ryan Mallory)

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HDFC Bank Limited (HDB) short at resistance. 

shorting hdfc bank swing tradeStock: HDFC Bank Limited (HDB)

Long or Short: Short

Entry: 40.71

Stop-Loss: $42.17

 

Chart: HDFC Bank Ltd (HDB) Daily

HDFC Bank Limited HDB swing trade short setup

Reason for Trade:  I took this trade today at $40.71 as it bounced straight into resistance on low volume. That volume level in this trade is key, because the amount of enthusiasm behind the quick rally was equal to what you'd see on Christmas eve or a shortened day of trading. There is also a long-term trend line that has broken (dotted yellow line) and the bounce takes price right into the underside of  the prior trend. 

The most promising of this setup is the broken descending triangle that has been broken and confirmed and is the main reason for me taking a short position in HDB. 

This  market is extremely over-extended, and should no doubt see a pullback in the coming days, if not today. Assuming as much should bode well for the short play I have now in HDB. 

Be sure to check out Ryan's Swing Trading Setups at SharePlanner.com