It happens when inflammatory events (usually political, terror or war related, but also including things like Ebola, Bird Flu and the like) crop up; stocks go down and hysteria starts to build. The mainstream media jump aboard and next thing you know you’ve got people heading for the exits… right into the next bottom. In the case of the current corrective consolidation, a disappointment in the Trump administration’s Healthcare follies rolled right into the war-like events in Syria and Afghanistan. Presto! A much needed correction of the over-bullishness was on.
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.
Up In the Air
Greetings from the Centurion Lounge at San Francisco International Airport, where my beloved son and I are preparing to fly off to, yes, another fencing tournament. This place is good for my frail ego, since my kids have been dropping some broad hints about me putting on a few pounds, and seeing the spheres that inhabit this place makes me feel less pudgy. I guess the upper middle class traveling sort likes to chow down. But this little anecdote isn’t why you’re here. Let’s talk about a few charts.
I am, as you might guess, still utterly short. I have 43 positions, 40 of which are individual equities (largely in energy) and 3 simple ETFs. The ES has been banging around, going nowhere in particular, for two solid months now. The lines cleanly define the diminishing range, and gee willikers, I’d love to see us break the lower boundary. I’m traveling, so that can only help, at least for Friday.
Play It Again
Well, since Gene Scott was such a hit here on Slope (ahem…….) I managed to find a rusty old copy of the song he would always play to make people call in and give him money. He made no secret of it. On this very clip, he refers to viewers as being like “Pavlov’s dog” who would remit their cash upon any hearing of “I Wanna Know.”
