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.

Signed Copies of My Newest Book

By -

0224-panicAs many of you know, my latest book, Panic, Prosperity, and Progress, was released by John Wiley just days ago. I have decided to sell a small number of signed copies directly, so I had this special page created on which you can purchase the book via Paypal or a regular credit card. I’m charging the regular retail price for the book and tacking on $10 for shipping (that would be 2-day priority mail) and handling (that would be your favorite blogger putting the damned thing in a box). Please note I’ve only received my first cache of these, so while the first portion will go out promptly, the rest might take an extra couple of days while I wait for the rest of the shipment.

Of course, if you’d rather have a copy unmarred by my signature, you can pick one up (for a lower cost) at good old Amazon.

A Typical Retrace

By -

I wanted to show the chart for hhgregg (yeah, they really spell it out that way) not so much because I shorted it today, but for a more general point: it’s very typical of the kind of hearty bounce I’m seeing these days into whose strength I’m selling. The stock is in a sawtooth downtrend, and it recently bounced nearly 50% from just a few weeks ago. My view is that this kind of countertrend bounce beneath a big topping pattern spells opportunity. (more…)

3D Printing – No Barrier to Future Losses

By -

Note from author: Immediately after contributing this post I noticed DDD down nearly 6% this morning due to a downgrade by Merrill Lynch.

Valuation – Tech, 1999?

At a current price to sales ratio of 17.99 and a forward PE ratio of 93.88 (according to Yahoo Finance), we’ll let the individual reader decide what represents value when talking about 3D Systems (DDD). Similar lofty valuations are present in competitors like Stratasys (SSYS) and ExOne (XONE). But we will make a case that these companies should be valued closer to traditional automated manufacturing equipment makers than some sort of first mover in a transformative and disruptive technology. Or at least that this is going to be their eventual destiny. (more…)

Russell’s Recovery

By -

It’s a real shame what happened to the Russell 200 chart today. After a terribly encouraging break in a vitally-important wedge (see green tint), the index fell as it should, then it started to recover. The recovery was terribly strong – – so strong, in fact, that it got back ABOVE the broken support line and challenged the lifetime high (see magenta tint). I’m afraid there’s pretty much no hope at this point for the bears. Game over. (more…)

Three-Dee Pee-Oh

By -

Just about the only bright spot to my trading day as been a put position in 3D Systems Corporation, whose chart is shown below. The media has been awash in 3-D printing articles for the past year, and as much of an early adopter as I am (ahem: bought my first computer in February 1980, Macintosh in June 1984, iPhone on the day of its introduction, iPad on the day of its introduction, Tesla Model S early in its release, etc., etc.) I’m not as optimistic about 3-D printing as the rest of the world. I see another DDD article is in the hopper from another Slope contributor, and I’ll publish that more thorough and thoughtful analysis tonight. (more…)