The Director sent me this fascinating animation of how battered crypto has been lately (it’s also interesting to see how desperately Ethereum has tried to defy the downturn):
(more…)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.
A Dozen Reflections
Emotions can change rapidly. On Wednesday morning, I was actually pretty excited about what was going to happen after the FOMC. By the end of the day, I was starting to feel some anxiety again. Thus, I thought it would be a good exercise to take a stroll through all 39 of my ETF charts and get my bears.
Below are what I consider the twelve most informative of those charts. The first three are available to everyone, and the other nine are only visible to Slope’s premium members (which you can become instantly by clicking here). I hope you find these reflections as helpful as I did when I made them. (As always, clicking on any image makes it big).
We began with the emerging markets, which I think is rather bullishly-configured. It has been tracking along this channel for virtually the entire year, and the ‘hammer” candle it made today seems to suggest a bounce is at hand.
Rights and Wrongs
Well, we survived the day, more or less. And that, my friends, is the LAST scheduled event of any importance until next year. So we’re basically in the pure psychology zone. No economic news. No earnings. Just…………feelings.
I thought it would be valuable, for you and me both (but probably me most of all) to reflect on the day’s events and sort of where my head is at on the market. I’ll commence the reflection with this chart of the ES futures:
Pfascism
One of the most misused words on the planet today is “fascist.” To the illiterate (AKA almost every citizen), it is synonymous with “a person whose opinions are at odds with my own.” That’s simply wrong. It would be like me calling you a grape. It has no meaning, and it’s a bit silly.
I believe a far more helpful definition, particularly from an economic standpoint, is as follows:
“In general, fascist governments exercised control over private property but they did not nationalize it. Scholars also noted that big business developed an increasingly close partnership with the Italian Fascist and German fascist governments. Business leaders supported the government’s political and military goals. In exchange, the government pursued economic policies that maximized the profits of its business allies.”
To which I think the answer is: Pfizer, which has gone up 100% since Covid kicked in. THIS, my friends, is fascism.
(more…)Hot Take on ES
As I type this, we’re in the throes of markets flying up and down as Powell is speaking. My quick take is that the vomit higher is no big surprise, but there is an absolute mountain of overhead supply which all the bears in the world (which number three: myself, Baby Bear, and an anonymous middle-aged male) are counting on for defense.
