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.

Catch Up or Catch Down?

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It should come as a surprise to no one that I’m getting my ass kicked today, as the market once again roars to records highs, based on the fact that Trump didn’t sound insane last night. Oddly, after his speech, the ES and NQ had pretty much shrugged their shoulders at the whole thing. I guess the lack-of-insanity had to sink in for hours, and now equities around the world are at levels never before seen in human history.

Most vexing to me is what energy is doing, because oil is weak (which is what I want to see, since I have a lot of energy shorts) but energy stocks are VERY strong. Looking at the divergence below, the monster question is – – will oil “catch down” to energy stocks (which have been unusually weak until today), or will energy stocks continue to “catch up” with oil?

0301-XOPUSO

Reason

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It seems almost quaint to think about the reasons stock used to go up years ago, such as:

  • Consistently strong and growing earnings;
  • A superb management team;
  • Healthy dividends well in excess of bond yields;
  • An exciting new product line

What is it this morning powering stocks to lifetime highs? Oh, that would be:

  • The President sounded Presidential

Sort of like “the grass looked green” or “the sky looked blue”. We’re really reaching here, folks.

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