I don’t know if it will continue today but the last two days have seen declines initially, followed by a dribble upwards all day on press conferences and vaguely optimistic statements that a budget deal might be close, then a decline overnight as it becomes clear than any agreement has been knocked back another day. This pattern may repeat again today of course. (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.
Crouching Tiger or Hidden Dragon?
It came to my attention yesterday that my comment yesterday morning about the possibility of swapping ‘them’ all for a dog and then shooting the dog could be interpreted as referring to the Republicans only. Not so, as I was referring to both Houses of Congress in a non-partisan manner that was expressing general contempt for both parties. (more…)
Energy: The Most Bullish ETF Out There
Cats and Dogs
Well there was no budget agreement yesterday, which wasn’t much of a surprise really, as no-one seemed particularly interested in talking …. to each other, or compromising. The Republicans seem more likely to be more damaged by this shutdown and may well blink first and soon to avoid serious electoral damage, but I would expect at least a couple more days of posturing and empty rhetoric before a face-saving formula is found. (more…)
Government Shutdown Gap
It seems likely that deadlock over the budget negotiations will trigger a partial shutdown of the US government tonight for the first time in 17 years. Equities have responded with a big gap down overnight and ES is trading at 1671 as I write. Looking at the ES 60min chart this looks like a breakaway gap under the support trendline of a pattern that could be read either as a falling wedge or a sloping H&S. The target for either would be in the 1640-5 area. There is some positive RSI divergence here and we may see a retest of broken support in the 1681-3 area. That would look very shortable. If this is a breakaway gap it shouldn’t be filled until the downside move has finished. ES 60min chart: (more…)
