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.

Surely That Isn’t All. Right?

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As recently as yesterday afternoon, my persistent hand-wringing about the bounce was in Full Wring mode, and I figured we might be only 40% done with the bounce. I laid out in a premium post over the weekend that we might be in for more teeth-clinching for the VIX to work its way from almost 30 (last week) to maybe half that value.

Let’s just put on our fantasy caps for a minute and suppose that 1400-point rise on the Dow from Thursday’s low to yesterday’s high was sufficient to relieve the oversold nature of the market and that, unbeknownst to us, the nature of the market has changed so severely that the selling has already resumed. With those rosy glasses on our heads, let’s talk about how each of these indexes might continue to get walloped.

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The Case for a Bear Call Spread in SPY

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Markets don’t rise in neat, predictable arcs. They stumble forward, lurch sideways, and sometimes drop like a stone. When implied volatility spikes, traders who can remain calm and methodical find opportunity amid the turbulence. One such opportunity? A bear call spread SPY.

A bear call spread is a simple, structured approach: Sell a call option at a strike price above the current market price and hedge the risk by buying a higher-strike call. The objective? Collect premium while keeping losses defined. Even if the underlying asset drifts upward, the trade offers a buffer before losses begin. And if prices slip lower, profits come faster.

With SPY trading at $566.88, the setup for another bear call spread looks enticing.

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