Yikes. I’m not looking forward to what I wake up to in the morning……….
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.
A Fearsome Loss!
After the market closed today (Monday), I saw on my news feed that Verifone Systems (PAY) had agreed to be acquired at a huge premium to its closing price, about 50% higher than the market. That’s not especially interesting news to anyone that doesn’t have a position in the stock, but I do. And it’s a short position. And that, as you might guess, is not a good thing.
I am sharing this bit of bad news as an object lesson in risk management, however. Because after I found this out, I asked myself the following questions and gave myself the following answers: (more…)
Bouncing Toward the Gap and MA
As you might guess, today (Monday) was pretty much the opposite of last Friday for me. Friday was awesome. Today sucked. But as a swing trader, I’m not going to cover all my positions willy-nilly. As I so often say, the individual stops need to take care of themselves. As such, I’ve retreated from 71 positions down to 61. Of those, 51 remain profitable, and the other 10 have small losses. Average of the winners is 3.27%, and the average of the losers is negative 0.26%.
This bounce could have more life to it (and, for me, more pain). Looking at the charts, it seems to be the key is the gap between last Wednesday and Thursday. Take a look below, and you’ll see an interesting correlation between the 100 day moving average and the Wed/Thurs price gap. It seems to me, that makes a sensible bounce target. (Side note: I took this snapshots about an hour before the close, so the price moves were even higher).
Sissy Puss
It was nine very, very long years ago that we reached an important milestone in the history of the market: the fabled “666” bottom of the S&P 500.
One Month Hence
The inability of the stock market to hold a downtrend more than two days is driving me insane (again). It has been two years since there has even been a drop off lasting a couple of weeks.
It was just a month ago that we were in the throes of an all-too-brief bout of excitement. But, looking back, it’s evident that 90% of the move was confined to just two trading sessions. Yep. That was it. For two years of waiting, we got just two days of glory. The next morning was a panic low, and bang, we were back into the unending quagmire.
