A favorite video of a favorite song from my favorite band.
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.
Take the Pepsi Challenge
I don’t normally have a timeline in mind for my positions, but one short-sale I could anticipate holding for months is Pepsi (PEP), which is sporting a massive, well-formed topping pattern.
High Implied Volatility a Gift for Sellers
Before we dive into the details, a quick note — if you’re an options trader looking for clear, no-fluff education, I invite you to check out The Option Premium. The Option Premium is my free weekly newsletter dedicated to helping traders of all levels make smarter decisions with options. Each issue breaks down actionable strategies, market insights, volatility signals, and premium-selling setups — all through a risk-first lens. Whether you’re building your first iron condor or managing a multi-strategy options portfolio using poor man’s covered calls, you’ll find something here to add to your trading toolbox.
If you’ve been following the market lately (most at Slope have) you’ve probably noticed a key shift: implied volatility (IV) has spiked across the board. Yesterday, I touched on how this high-volatility environment presents a window of opportunity for options traders—not by buying options, but by selling them.
(more…)Captain’s Log
Slopers – last night, we upgraded our platform, and, well, you know how “upgrades” can be really “downgrades“, so I decided to revert. I did so this morning, but it seems in doing so, a few folks are having trouble logging in.
Don’t worry: your account isn’t disabled, and the database didn’t change. I’m not quite sure why some folks are having issues, but many of them who were wrote me later to say that after a couple of attempts (in some cases, just resetting their password) they were fine. In some cases, if you keep trying to log in, the system will lock you out since it thinks you are a hacker, but after 60 seconds, it’ll release your IP.
I’m sorry for any trouble, but I don’t have any magic cure-all at the moment. Write me if you are totally stuck after trying the above.
The Art of the Schlemiel
I’m glad I didn’t amble into my office in the middle of the night to see how the market was doing, because I was at risk of having a brief heart attack. In the latest exchange in this risible trade war, China signaled that it would be open to negotiations of the U.S. acted more respectfully. That news alone since equities exploding higher, with the /RTY in particular erasing all losses and zipping into the green!
