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.

Money Show

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I’m on my way to the San Francisco Money Show right now, where I hope to spend a little time with my Tastytrade colleagues (which only happens about once a year). I’m bouncing along a train right now trying to hack together something resembling a post, so I’ll share a few thoughts on some ETF charts I find more interesting than the others.

First up is the commodity ETF symbol DBC, which is forming a beautiful top; it looks like the pattern is about 90% done. Here’s hoping for a break beneath that horizontal.

slopechart DBC (more…)

Idealized Utilities

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If someone – – anyone – – were asked what financial instrument sounded more exciting: The Dow Jones Utilities (XLU) or hot Internet app maker Snap (SNAP), I strongly suspect SNAP would win the day. However, SNAP is a dog, trading at about one-third of its peak and just kind of crawling around the sub-teens (much like its demographic). The Utilities, on the other hand, is a daily obsession of mine.

I have a ton of January 2019 puts on this (strike price $54), and after causing a bit of trendline damage earlier this year (red circle), it roared higher and only started weakening a few days ago.

utils (more…)

Can Bonds Relax?

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The only red on my screen this morning (and it’s down only the tiniest bit) is bonds. This is a market I watch terribly closely, because as I’ve said through most of 2018, the core shift I’m looking for is an increase in interest rates and an accompanying decrease in real estate valuations. Through the course of the year, the now-broken trendline has done an effective job of repelling prices (arrows). At the moment, my fondest hope is that prices don’t either bother getting back to the trendline and instead turn away from that green tinted area.

ZBSHORT (more…)