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.

Weekly Sector Report 04.30.10 (by Leisa)

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Last week was a highly unusual week where all sectors were negative.

   
However….. in the more granular industries, here is a summary of those that were positive:

   

I regret that I do not have a chart book for you you on the 24 sectors. I had some technical difficulties with a new program that I'm using, and I'm quite unhappy about it. If you are an intrepid chart viewer, you can find the chart book of the 147 sectors in weekly/daily/monthly format. This report is more research weight, and it is 48mb or so. View it here…if you dare!
You can find the summary 147 sectors here.

Utilizing Price by Volume Bars (by Leisa)

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I have simplistic charts because I have simplistic methods.  I want to share with you a trade technique that I use that I've found to be very successful.   One way to look at the complexion of a chart is to utilize volume by price bars. Before launching into more narrative, let me put up a chart:

Ctxs

A few key points:

  • The stock has made a significant relative high
  • The stock has traded in a 2-month range with very high volume during this time frame.
  • It has a 6% short float over the past couple of months.

When I look at this chart, I see instability in the current price range.  If the chart were flipped, I would find that long volume by price bar as being very stable, and I've enclosed an example of that for you. At its current price range, this chart looks very top heavy to my eye.  The short VbP bars are like an air pocket–a vacuum if you will.  This stock price could hit that air pocket and fall to the $43 area quickly.

This might be a stock that you might consider putting on a watch list as it might be at or approaching an intermediate level to short.  My point is not to recommend this stock as a short, but rather to demonstrate how looking at volume by price bars can give you a dimension of information that is not otherwise readily apparent.  

Here's another chart, COST, that has another promising (VbP) configuration:

Snap72

Remember, this set up works on the long side too. Here's a chart of FTWR, as stock that I have a long position in.  

Ftwr

I want to share one last chart with you.  It is a Renko chart.  I posted a link to this chart back when I originally created it in September, 2009 of the NYSE composite.  I believed the lack of VbP air pocket above would suck the price upward. (I note that I could have easily been wrong, but this chart was part of my 'weight of evidence.'

$NYA_090609

There are no sure things when we look at charts, but VbP information adds a dimension to your chart review that may help you see opportunities and/or hurdles that you might have missed without the volume profile

Position:  long FTWR.

SOH: A Retrospective View | Part 2 of 2 (by Leisa)

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I created a graph of the monthly # of posts since inception. 

Snap23

The Three C’:  Cows, Clowns and Cohen

The comments section of Tim’s blog was a very intimate area….like a dinner party v. the Woodstock feel that it now has.  There was a small cluster of cow posts/comments that I thought I would share:

0314-$bison

And a Cow Poem

Cow poem

And this funny little ditty

Snap22

Tim would have a recurring theme of clowns…here is but one selection

And finally….Cohen

0313-$godsheisugly

That’s all of my retrospective. We’ve some good posts in the hopper that I’ll publish later so please check back!

SOH: A Retrospective View | Part 1 of ? (by Leisa)

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I now have a real appreciation for the amount of work that goes into keeping a dynamic blog going. This community and Tim have been very kind in their praise.  I thank you for that and appreciate your patience during my occasional gaffes and misdirects, during this time.  It means much.

Did you know that Tim has never been away?  I've "known" Tim for almost five years. This blog was one of my first blog homes.I don't always read/see every post, but I managed to catch his vacation announcement.  As  I'm quick to 'outreach' to Tim when I see something objectionable, I wanted to quickly outreach to lend a hand.  In extending an offer to help out, I soon realized the responsibility of it–particularly when I rolled out of bed later than normal one morngin and my first thought was, "OMG, I've got to get a blog post up."  I imagine that Tim's sense of that is 100% greater.  A blog such as this is about community, and I've simply given back to this community by volunteering to service as as editor while Tim is away. 

Blog as community…….Slope Fest

The idea of going to Slope Fest became the reality of going through this singular comment by Giledain.

"And the reason I'm going is to hang out with some of the best people I've yet to meet face-to-face, people to laugh with, to cry tears of joy with and to follow me out to the desert to howl at the moon with." 

No matter what material success we have in life, ultimately our life is enriched by the strength of our personal relationships with friends and family. My on-line friendships with several here will now be cemented through the joy of sharing food, drink and conversation in real time. Yes, that comes with the risk of all them finding out that I'm much thinner, smarter and younger on line than offline.  But the reward is that THIS event will be a memorable (hopefully not ignominious) time–and for any of us who cannot remember it, we'll have our Slope biographer, Biff, memorialize it.  If you are on the fence about coming, I hope that you'll take Giledain's words to heart.

Wrapping things up…..

So while I found a chance to exercise my plans for blogosphere domination, I realized that it was far too much work and responsibility.  Accordingly, I will happily go back to be a sometime contributor and frequent participant. However, before wrapping up, I want to embrace my dark side a bit and be somewhat indulgent of my inner despot, otherwise that persona might emerge as something more sinister.  I've elected to allow this persona to manifest a bit by giving a bit of a historical view of this blog.  In deference to the ADHD proclivities of many Slopers, I will break this up into bite size chunks.  I hope that Tim does not mind my taking this audacious liberty, but I think that the community might find that this brief retrospective gives a bit of historical flavor.

Beanie