The ProShares UltraShort 20+ Year Treasury (TBT) has taken off this morning despite disappointing results from Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT) and Cisco (CSCO). Granted, the jobless claims figures continue to argue in favor a strengthening economy, but definitely not enough (IMHO) to warrant a surge in the TBTs (in yield). (more…)
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.
Murk
Well, the Fed announcement came out just a few minutes ago (as I’m typing this), and as of this moment, the markets don’t quite know what to do with themselves. There is some strengthening at the moment; my all-short portfolio is actually holding up pretty well (the Russell, S&P, and NASDAQ are all up exactly the same amount – 0.35% – yet I am down just one-hundredth of a point for the day). You can see the red-line comparison of the annoucement here. It seems like it will continue to be a long time before the Fed has the backbone to turn off the spigot.
A Must-Read Before Tomorrow’s FOMC Meeting
If you haven’t picked up this book yet, it is a must read prior to tomorrow’s FOMC Statement. It is a book for Bernanke, by Bernanke. Ok…. Just laugh… you know its funny. (more…)
Here Comes the Hand Off
It is as notable as a 2nd term president handing off the big problems to the next guy, as George Bush did with Barack Obama in 2008; the changing of the guard at the Fed, that is. (more…)
Thought Experiments
Before I get going describing my thought experiments, I feel I should admit to a couple of failures. In earlier posts, I had made the claims that GDX would not fall below $26.31 and that gold would not trade below ~$1250. I was wrong on both counts, so please take my musings below with a nice pinch of salt. (more…)
