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.

Tear Bear Fear Asunder

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This is a message for the handful of bears that still exist in our world. I am one of you. We are the one out of a million (and that is a generous estimate). The past month has been awful for the bears. But I am here to try to give you some perspective about the history of major bear markets.

Look at this chart of the 2000-2002 bear market. Every one of those counter-trend rallies was vicious and brutal to the bears. And I’m sure that every single time, the pundits said It’s Finally Over. And, just like you’ll find something you’ve lost in the last place you look, likewise the only time they were right was at the final counter-trend bounce. These rallies are nothing short of gargantuan, and they all led to bulls getting clipped.

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The Return of Dull

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Sigh.

A month ago, this market was so riveting that I could barely take my eyes off of it. As it is right now, if I may be so candid, it is as dull as dog shit. Honestly. And I say that, even if it harms me, because an unspoken component of my role is to get people excited about trading the markets. But one look at the VIX, and I think you’ll understand how disingenuous this would be. All the oxygen has left the room.

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Weak Paws

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I am surrounded by vacillation.

Some would call it flexibility, I’m sure. Or not getting married to a point of view. Or open-mindedness. That’s fine. But person after person and company after company that had declared THIS IS IT! only days ago has now completely run for the hills (or, more accurately, hoisted a Bullish Flag above their fortress). Even here on Slope, I come to find out that the most stalwart, bloodthirsty bears have only committed a few percentage points of their portfolio to that disposition.

The straw that broke the camel’s back tumbled into my inbox just moments ago, when, of all parties, Elliott Wave began the most frantic backpedaling job I’ve ever seen and stated………

New lifetime highs, huh, boys? All I can say is that, if that doesn’t happen, don’t you DARE take credit for calling the bear market. Expressing BOTH opinions simultaneously doesn’t mean a goddamned thing.

Dead Cat(hie) Bounce

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The bulls are doing victory laps, because even garbage like Ark Capital ETFs had a great week (in fact, I think the best in their history). I would quietly note that this is the NINTH dead cat bounce in the midst of this bear market for the likes of Ark, and I’m not sure where it is written that the ninth bounce is the magic number where it all suddenly stops and soars to lifetime highs.