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.

The Astonishing Small Caps

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If there's one chart that illustrates the strangehold the bulls have on the bears, it's the one below. The Russell 2000 is at a never-before-seen-in-history high. Higher than the NASDAQ bubble. Higher than the housing/credit bubble. Never. Ever. Higher.

I had hoped that the break of the extraordinary wedge pattern (highlighted in teal) would be similar in follow-up to what happened with the prior instance that I've shaded in green. Instead, the fall terminated abruptedly on October 4, 2011 and has been more or less pushing higher ever since.

0115-rut

Central Bankers: 183. Bears: 0.

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I am seriously starting to lose hope we're going to see a bear market ever again in our lifetimes. If central bankers can simply press a computer button and push the market perpetually higher, what's the point?

The ONLY bear market right now, it seems to me, is in bonds. The "clean setup" I pointed out yesterday is working out, and I'm augmenting my long position in TBT, the ultra-bear fund for bonds. Here's the ZB as it tumbles away:

0907-zb

Sucks Out Loud

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Well, after 41 months of an (ostensibly…..) countertrend rally, and eleven solid weeks of the latest upswing, it takes a lot of faith (or, many would say, stupidity) to hold out any hope for the bear market resuming. Today definitely did some serious damage to the bearish case. (Although wave 3 is bound to kick in any moment now – cough, cough).

The most obvious is that the ES is now – God help us – at a new high, surpassing even the nosebleed levels set late in March.

0816-endES

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