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.

Which Type Trader Are You? (by Market Sniper)

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This post may offend many and that is not its intention. This is a think piece I have been formulating in my mind for quite some time now.  Its purpose is to get you to think about your trading methodology(s) and setups in a critical light.

To my way of thinking, traders who utilize technical analysis all fall into three broad groups (traders who use purely fundamental analysis are excluded from this type of grouping).

The Prognosticator

In this group I include Elliot Wave traders, Gann traders and astrological traders. These traders trade in the future. Based on what they say may happen and some go as far as to say what WILL happen. When a trade is a failure, they use misinterpretation of past price action as the excuse for the failed trade. It seems that Elliot wave traders (mostly sellers of the system) are in a constant civil war as to "correct" interpretation. Gann followers can spend their entire trading life searching for his "missing" piece. A lot of legend has been created around WD Gann, promulgated by promoters of his methodology. WD Gann was prolific in his writings and covered a multitude of areas. Regardless of what happens next, some part of his work can be given credit for "calling" the "move." Too bad we lack foresight to know which one! He is also been credited to have died with a tidy fortune due to his trading. Interviews with his son (who happened to have been in the banking business) revealed that he died in modest means and made the bulk of his money promoting his ideas over his life time. The foremost (and longest being tracked) in the astrological trading group is Arch Crawford. In over 25 years of his trading service, he has had flashes of brilliance. However, according to Hulbert, his record, overall, has well under performed the market during the long period tracked. Prognosticators rely on interpretation of price. So much for the prognosticators.

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Greek Referendum Plunge (by Springheel Jack)

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There's little appetite for austerity in Greece, as we've all been seeing from the intermittent riots over the last few months. The Greeks announced yesterday that they would be putting the latest Euro bailout and greek partial default plan to a referendum and obviously the plan may get rejected. I have found no date for this proposed referendum looking round this morning, so this bump on the road may affect markets for quite a while yet.

Kudos to my friend Alphahorn for calling the high and going in heavily short there. He's given me permission to post his current primary count after yesterday's bearish break and he is expecting new lows from here on that count:

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Breaking Trendlines (by Springheel Jack)

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I was watching three key levels on SPX, NDX and RUT yesterday and they all broke up. NDX broke up fairly early in the session and the others at the close. EURUSD also broke the declining resistance trendline, and ZB broke the rising blue trendline from yesterday morning's chart and has been testing strong support in the 142 area overnight. These were all significant breaks and as a group they strong suggest that this rally has further to go, though at over 90 ES points up at the close yesterday from the Tuesday morning low, we might be seeing some retracement sooner rather than later.

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