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.

Tallymarks for the Stalemate

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With Wednesday as “the big day” this month, I wanted to take a look at the recent intraday history of the /ES and consider winning points for bulls and bears alike. After all, in spite of the big swoosh higher the past couple of days, 2014 has been pretty much a stalemate. Here we are, nearly a quarter-done with the year, and the Dow is still down 0.45%. Of course, broader indexes are more impressive – the S&P 500 up about 2.25%, and the Russell 2000 is up nearly a full 5%. So here’s what I’m seeing for both “sides”: (more…)

An Irksome Divergence

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For ages now, it seemed that the USD/JPY cross-rate and the S&P 500 were linked at the hip due to the carry-trade. Day after day, hour after hour, tick after tick, they moved together with such harmony that it seemed to be unnecessary to even have two markets. Of course, now that USD/JPY is moving in a direction that should drag the ES down, there’s a monstrous divergence. The cross-rate is down nearly half a percent now, whereas the ES is up nearly two-thirds of a percent. Lucky, lucky us. Grrrrrrrrrr……… (more…)