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.
AutoZone Failed Breakout
Through the course of any trading day, I take snapshots of the most interesting charts, save them, and write up a post about them when I have time. Yesterday, I took a snapshot of AutoZone (symbol AZO) as a short candidate, but unfortunately I didn’t get around to doing a post on it (I did, however, mentioned it explicitly in my video last night).
I entered today short AZO and long puts on the same. I’ve covered the short and sold the puts for now, although I think there’s plenty of opportunity for lower prices ahead. What drew me to this short in the first place was its failed bullish breakout; what will bring me back in would be a retracement back to its failure level.
JC Penney…….a Buy!?!?
JC Penney has obviously had a horrible few years, only exacerbated by the fact that they got starry-eyed over an Apple executive (with the somewhat porn-star-ish name of Ron Johnson) back when Apple was the Best Shiny Thing on the planet. Well, the world has discovered that AAPL has clay feet, as do its executives, and they gave the guy the heave-ho (and, from what I read, the chap bought $50 million in JCP warrants whose strike price is way over 100% above the current bid, so that’s gotta hurt).
Anyhoo, unlikely as it seems, maybe JCP is nearing an important bounce point, based on the trendline that goes back over 30 – yep, that’s over thirty – years. Maybe Penney’s will eventually go the way of Montgomery Ward, but the chart says it’s nearing a buy point.
Metals Rally
Everything shiny is popping higher today – gold, silver, and the miners that dig ’em up.
I came this close to buying SLV calls yesterday, but I didn’t, and obviously that was a mistake. Poor old silver is so battered that it was almost guaranteed to bounce, although I think all these metals will roll over (yet again) since they are still within the throes a long-term downward move.
As if I’m near a downed power line during a thunderstorm, I’m not touching anything metallic, but keep an eye on XME, as I think it could be bouncing to attractive shorting levels here.
Fallen Heroes
Margaret Thatcher, former Prime Minister of Britain died yesterday. In my view the most talented politicians to become Prime Minister since the second world war were Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair, and of those two, she was the only one with strong convictions and statesmanlike qualities. Adieu Margaret Thatcher, a remnant of a bygone age when politicians ran economies without deferring to their central banker/planners, and when the solution to every economic problem, including having too much debt, was not necessarily to print money and run up more debt. In fairness she was helped in that by the head of the Federal Reserve then was the steely Paul Volcker rather than the much less impressive Ben Bernanke, but her achievements were considerable nonetheless.
