Slope of Hope Blog Posts

This is the heart and soul of the web site. Here we have literally tens of thousands of posts dating back over a decade. These are listed in reverse chronological order. You can also click on any category icon to see posts tagged with that particular category.

Semiconductor Sector

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As in January of 2013 (ahead of an economic up cycle) and Q4 2017-Q1 2018 (ahead of an economic ripple that began in 2018) the Semiconductor sector and in particular its Semi Equipment sub-sector are front and center in forming our analysis about coming events. Excerpted from the January 20th edition of Notes From the Rabbit Hole, NFTRH 535…

Semiconductor Sector – Watch the Early Bird in 2019

This one is special for me. I started my work life many moons ago as a participant with the Semi sector [circa 1983-1993], painfully learning first hand how violent the cyclical turns can be. Dialing ahead a couple decades, in January of 2013 NFTRH began a narrative that saw the then up-turning Semi Equipment bookings (this data is unfortunately no longer published) lead the sector, general manufacturing and eventually the whole raft of components that make up the economy into a cyclical up-turn.

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Smoke Two Joints

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Marijuana stocks are among our top charts to watch today on potentially positive news for the industry.

Aurora Cannabis Inc. (ACB) gained 20 cents on Tuesday to $5.93 on 15.8 million shares.  Shares rose with release of the final 2018 Farm Bill legalizing industrial hemp, as well as reports that Gov. Andrew Cuomo may introduce a plan to legalize recreational marijuana in New York.  On the hourly chart, ACB looks poised to break out above the neckline of a head-and-shoulders bottoming pattern.  First target is the recent highs and lateral resistance at $6.75, followed by $7.75.

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Sector Shorts: Banking

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Preface to all sector posts: I’m not going to dance around it: I am very short again. I have 99 different short positions and am aggressively positioned for the week ahead. I have gone through all my charts and have broken a portion of them into distinct sectors. Here is the next gallery, and as always, you can click on any thumbnail for a larger image. You can scroll left and right through the gallery.

Sector Shorts: Auto Manufacturing

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Preface to all sector posts: I’m not going to dance around it: I am very short again. I have 99 different short positions and am aggressively positioned for the week ahead. I have gone through all my charts and have broken a portion of them into distinct sectors. Here is the next gallery, and as always, you can click on any thumbnail for a larger image. You can scroll left and right through the gallery.

Sector Shorts: Technology

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Preface to all sector posts: I’m not going to dance around it: I am very short again. I have 99 different short positions and am aggressively positioned for the week ahead. I have gone through all my charts and have broken a portion of them into distinct sectors. Here is the next gallery, and as always, you can click on any thumbnail for a larger image. You can scroll left and right through the gallery.

Focus on the Semis

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Greetings, one and all, from another hotel suite, where it’s approaching 2 in the morning and I feel compelled to post a few charts. It’s what I do.

I am quite fixated these days on semiconductors, so I took a look at the components of the VanEck Vectors Semiconductor ETF, whose components can be seen here. I took a look at them all, and the gallery below has the ones I found the most interesting. I am, naturally, short in multiple ways this entire group.

EWY South Korea ETF, Proxy for Global Tech, Probing Key Support

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Many Street analysts consider the iShares South Korea ETF (EWY) as a proxy for the health of global technology, the semiconductor sector, the chip sector, and perhaps the retail electronics sector as well.

One look at my weekly chart of EWY shows that it has been in the grasp of a major correction or possibly even bear phase since its January all-time high at 79.07 into Tuesday’s low at 56.34, a near 30% decline.  This decline has retraced two-thirds of of the entire prior advance from the August 2015 low at 42.94 to the January 2018 high at 79.07. One could think that the ugly EWY performance reflected deteriorating relations with North Korea, but, ironically, relations have not been so promising since 1950! (more…)

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