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.

Taxes, Macro Signals, Seasonality, US Stocks and Gold Miners

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While politicians hammer out the details it is generally accepted that corporations and by extension the investor and asset owner classes are targeted for benefits under the coming Republican tax plan. The logical implication of that beneficial treatment is that barring a market meltdown in the interim, people looking to unload stock positions and take profits would tend to wait until January in hopes of gaining the 2018 tax benefit vs. 2017’s tax code.

Among the under performing sectors subject to tax loss selling in late 2017 I have selected the gold miners for this post because they tend to be counter-cyclical and “in the mirror” to the broad risk ‘on’ asset party currently ongoing. We have noted again and again that with the asset party in full swing the miners’ fundamentals cannot possibly look good, and at face value they don’t. Sector fundamentals like gold/oil and gold/materials ratios are not good and macro fundamentals like gold vs. stock markets, the economy (which is relatively strong) and the yield curve are not at all supportive either… as they currently stand. (more…)

Percentage Charts

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SlopeCharts has been on a tear this week. I also want to put the word out that I would like to make these available to someone out there who has a blog that could use some charts. This isn’t an open offer – – pretty much whoever asks first, that’s my guy (or gal). It’s really just an experiment. So drop me an email if you want to get SlopeCharts on your site! Anyway………

I’m pleased to let you know that we’ve added Percentage charts to SlopeCharts. To use them, just choose Chart Styles from the menu.

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Then select the rightmost icon.

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Turn the World Upside Down

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Even though it is a so-called holiday, we’ve added like FIVE new features to SlopeCharts. I’ll be talking about them over the next few days.

One of the features I missed from ProphetCharts days was the Ctrl-U keyboard command, which flipped the chart upside-down (this is a cool way to give yourself an entirely new perspective without having to stand on your head). Well, we’ve added it to SlopeCharts now – – give it a try! Just press Ctrl-U to toggle between normal and upside-down mode.

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