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.

Precious Metals Breaking Down! 3 Amigos to Abort? 4 Horsemen to Ride?

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I am not trying to be a wise guy with the first half of the title (it’s a goof on alarmist media), but if you were not bear biased or outright bearish on the gold sector’s daily and weekly technicals, and its macro and sector fundamentals by now all you have left are the alarmist headlines now telling us about H&S breakdowns, HUI/Gold ratio bearishness and whatever else is going on out there in media large and small to scare the lowly gold bug.

As noted in an NFTRH update last night…

It’s hard to feel bullish now and that is the point of markets. Sometimes you have to do what is hard. Let’s remember that we’d planned for the sector to bottom out in December or January all along and it is only dutifully working to that script. The time for caution was back when HUI topped out at 220, and extreme caution when it lost key support at 195-200. Now the sector is on a plunge that could be the final act of this correction. Either be thinking brave or be sidelines (or both, laying in wait).

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3 Global Markets That Could Indicate an Interim Correction

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Here are a few global ETFs with little room to drop in order to avoid daily chart technical breakdowns. That does not mean the end of the larger up trends, but could signal oncoming intermediate corrections if they do fall further and close the week that way (pre-market is red). The question would be, are they leading the fiscally drunk US market and its chronic tweeter in chief/stock pumper?

The Euro hedged European iShares, like the Euro STOXX 50 which it mimics, is in a bear flag. The biggest volume days have been red as this flag has ground upward. Not a short-term bullish look for Europe. What it does have going for it is that the SMAs 50 & 200 are both sloping upward. Even a hit of the 200 is within the context of the up trend.

hezu

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Taxes, Macro Signals, Seasonality, US Stocks and Gold Miners

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While politicians hammer out the details it is generally accepted that corporations and by extension the investor and asset owner classes are targeted for benefits under the coming Republican tax plan. The logical implication of that beneficial treatment is that barring a market meltdown in the interim, people looking to unload stock positions and take profits would tend to wait until January in hopes of gaining the 2018 tax benefit vs. 2017’s tax code.

Among the under performing sectors subject to tax loss selling in late 2017 I have selected the gold miners for this post because they tend to be counter-cyclical and “in the mirror” to the broad risk ‘on’ asset party currently ongoing. We have noted again and again that with the asset party in full swing the miners’ fundamentals cannot possibly look good, and at face value they don’t. Sector fundamentals like gold/oil and gold/materials ratios are not good and macro fundamentals like gold vs. stock markets, the economy (which is relatively strong) and the yield curve are not at all supportive either… as they currently stand. (more…)