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.

Well That Escalated Quickly

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Well, it’s really, really obvious now that the final vomiting up of stock sales happened very close to yesterday’s final bell. The ES bottomed at about 4:30 EST and it did nothing but climb between then and now. I don’t mind that I still have the vast majority of my short positions, but if I had it to do over again, I would have closed out my larger ETF shorts at the close. That kind of rush for the exit is probably going to be reversed, and it was.

I’ve backed off quite a bit, having taken my portfolio from a 95% commitment level to 66%. I got blown out of my only large short – FXE – at a loss, and many of my individual stock holdings were up 2%, 3%, and even more on the day, meaning, of course, a chunk of my profits from yesterday were eaten alive. (more…)

The Worrisome Euro

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Well, the only big short I had coming into today was FXE, and I got stopped out of it at a loss. I’m not touching it again, because the EUR/USD has pushed too much to the upside. More important, I am quite concerned that the inverted head and shoulders pattern – – very much intact – – could pose a meaningful risk to equity bears. This demands continued observation, as it could certainly influence equity strength in the weeks ahead.

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