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.

Countdown to Intel

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Next Thursday afternoon is going to be a monster for earnings reports – Amazon and Intel. Obviously the Friday following will be a big mover in one direction or another (although, give the past 9 years, I can only assume New Lifetime Highs).

I wanted to share Intel in particular since it has a recent gap at 52.48. If it remains below this, we’ve got a failed bullish breakout, which is significant, because otherwise this is a hell of a gorgeous bullish setup. Indeed, if the price seals up that gap and pushes above it again (which won’t take much doing), Intel could have years of gains ahead of it.

intc

What a Difference Six Years Makes

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There was a time, many years ago, that Netflix was this scrawny little small-cap stock of a firm that mailed DVDs to monthly subscribers. I was an early user of Netflix, and I absolutely loved it. (They are based here in the Bay Area). No one dared dream they would have a market cap of over $160 billion, as they do today. If you told someone ten years ago that Netflix would dwarf General Electric in terms of value, they would have laughed you right out of the room.

Although it’s a darling these days, six years ago, Netflix was absolute dog meat. They had introduced a product called Qwikster, which was considered the biggest product debacle since New Coke. By late summer of 2012, the stock had fallen 80%. Now just take a moment and consider that. Try to imagine, say, Amazon falling from 1844 to 377 in the span of a few months. On top of this, it’s not like they were in the throes of an economic meltdown. This was 2012, when the recover and QE fever were all the rage. So NFLX was garbage, and the news media reflected it: (more…)

Oil Nears Potential Turning Zone (by MoneyMiser21)

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The mighty weight of Slope’s bear power has been fully focused in oil as of late, as our beloved and hard working leader called a top on the black gold with accuracy that Dennis Gartman would pay for in U.S. dollar terms. (editor’s note: I’m touched!)

But is it time to pause or reverse? A bit of price and time analysis on the daily chart reveals a potential zone of trouble for bears.

First, let’s look at price.

When the front month contract switched to September on Tuesday evening, price gapped lower on the continuous chart to the top of the zone predicted by prior swing retracements in price amount during this bull market.

Oilfuts PriceAndTime ReversalProjections (more…)

50 Reasons Why This Bull Market Has Longer To Run

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I always love reading titles to articles that tell me I am about to read a bunch of “reasons” as to why a market is going to do something. So, I thought I would write my own.

When someone presents you with such an article, this is what they are really saying:

The stock market is logically going to decide to move in a specific direction because the reasons for it to do so are stronger than the reasons for it to move in the opposite direction.

Ultimately, the underlying premise of these articles is that a market moves based upon logic and reasoning.

So, let me ask you some questions:

With what logician did the analyst consult in order to come up with their analysis?

And, when was the last time you read analysis from a logician in order to determine the direction for the stock market? I mean, would it not make the most sense for logicians to provide analysis for the stock market if one believes that we should be looking into reasoning for the market to move in a specific direction?

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Survivors and Thrivers

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In this lifetime-highs-every-single-day environment we’re in, it’s astonishing that the vast majority of my short positions remain profitable. I’m not aggressive in the least right now – – about 130% of my cash buying power is being used (“aggressive” is twice that) – – and I am being very impatient with non-performers.

Here are thirteen individual shorts I am in right now that I wanted to share. This is a gallery, so you can click on any thumbnail and scroll left and right to see the SlopeCharts at a more legible size.