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.

Star-Studded FAANGs

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I last wrote about the FAANGs and FNGU and what I was monitoring in my post of November 4, 2018.

2018 was the year we saw the FAANGs form bearish shooting stars. Each candle on the following charts of FB, AMZN, AAPL, NFLX and GOOG represents a period of one year (absent on these charts is 2019’s candle, as I’ve left it off to illustrate last year’s weakness and volatility compared with prior years in these stocks).

You can see, at a glance, that FB is the weakest of the five, as it has erased almost all of its 2017 gains, as well as its gains last year.

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2018 Market Wrap-Up: Extreme Volatility

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The following charts depict 2018 market action in the S&P 500 Index (SPX), as well as the MSCI World Index. One word describes 2018 markets…volatile.

Volatility was extreme, as uncertainty gripped, not only U.S. markets, but markets world-wide, as well, as I had posited in my 2018 Market Forecast at the end of 2017. I believe it will continue to apply in 2019, and we’ll see a world market slowdown, as I described in my 2019 Market Forecast.

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US Real Estate Sector Nosedive

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Note from Tim: I realize today’s an all-green day, but I wanted to share this post from SB in any event, since the big picture hasn’t changed.

Further to my post of December 17, the percentage of S&P Real Estate stocks above their 200-day moving average has dropped below 50% to 37.5% (as of Friday’s close), as shown on the following graphic. At 50% on that date, it was the “last man standing,” apart from Utilities.

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SPX Teeters On The Edge Of A Bear Market

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The SPX gained 801.35 points from its November 8, 2016 close of 2139.56 (on the eve of the U.S. elections) to its all-time high of 2940.91 on September 21, 2018.

Since September 21, the SPX closed Monday (Christmas Eve) 589.81 points lower at 2351.10…a loss of 73.6% of those Nov/16 to Sept/18 points gained…and is now up by only 9.89% since November 8, 2016, as shown on the following percentage-gained graph.

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