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.

Skyward

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Greetings, yet again, from seven miles above the United States. I am making my way back to my beloved Palo Alto with a subset of my nuclear family, after a successful fencing venture.

Well, this is quite a strange feeling, being out of my shorts and bullishly positioned (albeit with a modest capital allocation).

  • Instead of seething about Fed interference, I am rooting for it;
  • Instead of cheering at the initial plunge in futures, I gasped at it;
  • Instead of resenting the rapid recovery in prices (so far, at least), I am celebrating it (although modestly, as I trust this rally about as far as I could throw the airplane I’m in right now).
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TPO Profile Price Targets For S&P 500 E-mini Futures

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Shown on the right-hand side of the daily chart of the S&P 500 E-mini Futures Index (ES) is a TPO Profile. It represents trading activity over a period of time at specified price levels and is shown in vertical histogram format (dark blue). Its outer edges at the top and bottom are defined by the two yellow lines. The longest row of the TPO defines the price level that was hit the most during the specified time period. This level is called the POC (Point of Control) (pink line). The price range surrounding the POC where 70% of the trading activity occurred is called the Value Area (area in between the two turquoise lines).

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Dance: Ten. Looks: Three

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Some of longer-time readers know that I’m a total Broadway fag. I can sing just about any tune from any musical from the past seventy years. This is a skill that is seldom deployed and even less frequently requested. All the same, I know my songs.

I am reminded of this peculiar characteristic and will offer as a metaphor the song from Chorus Line called Dance Ten Looks Three. Those of you who have heard it before probably think that its name its “Tits and Ass”, since that’s the main and oft-repeated line, but, understandably, the producers didn’t give it that name.

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Litmus Test

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Perhaps the greatest psychological debate that persists on Slope is whether or not there is such thing as a truly neutral, balanced, opportunistic trader. I have taken up the controversial and unpopular position that people tend to lean strongly bearish or bullish, whereas others have – – while pointing feverishly at themselves – – extolled the virtues of being blind to bias, and they simply extract money out of the market, irrespective of direction.

Let me state early on I actually do believe there are a very small number of people like this (like Attila) but, on the whole, we’re all either bulls or bears. And I’m not stating these in absolute terms. After all, I am a self-described and self-admitted permabear, but as I sit here now, my only positions are a sprinkling of bullish ones. But the permabear in me is ready to throw me off skyscraper if the market simply keeps plummeting.

So you have the opportunity for a bit of self-examination here. No reason to ‘fess up. Just ask yourself something.

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