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.

Interest Rates Will Define 2014

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As the world warms themselves around the comforting glow of TWTR, FB, GOOG, and all the other red-hot stocks of 2013, I’d like to quietly point out that interest rates are creeping up almost imperceptibly toward an important breakout level.

1224-tnx

Central bankers have had the freedom to do what they’ve been doing based on a very accommodating interest rate environment. If inflation starts to really kick in, well, game over, man. I’ll be watching the chart above closely, as I think its movement could be a driving force behind 2014.

Joseph and the Innkeeper

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SPX followed the daily upper bollinger band upwards yesterday, and using my usual practice of counting any close within two points as a close on the band, closed on the band. The band isn’t rising at full speed yet as the 20 DMA is still turning up, but I’m expecting the upper band to close today in the 1830-2 range, and most likely the SPX close today will be within two points of that. SPX daily chart: (more…)

Could We Stop with the Spikes?

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As if 2013 wasn’t challenging enough for old style chartists, it seems that lately some completely insane trades or calculations have been taking place that utterly screw the charts up. In just the past twenty-four hours, two of the most followed items in financial markets have complete barfage within their otherwise sensible tape action. Bonds had some huge-volume, weird-ass trade on Sunday: (more…)