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.

Tick Tock Tilt

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In my video, I think I mentioned I had acquired a long position in puts on bonds by way of symbol TLT. I haven’t touched bonds in a coon’s age (as we say in my home state), but the run-up in prices was something I found to be irresistible. Unlike my other options positions, which expire many months from now, I got aggressive with this trade, acquiring January puts.

This chart of the long-term continuous contract of /ZB shows the fascinating trio of tops, followed by the massive and historic breakdown over the past year. In my view, the surge is at, or close to, an end.

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ETF Focus: Majors

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Let’s look at some of the biggest ETFs after this horrific week. We begin with the Dow 30 “diamonds” fund, which has been in a descending channel for over a year. One warning is that the rally over the past four weeks has been so powerful that, on Friday, we got a little above the resistance trendline. More importantly, however, we remain below the most recent “lower high”, so as long as that is intact, we’ve still got a downtrend.

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