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.
It’s an odd thing. Many people write to me. A surprising number of them tell me of their troubles, some of which are sweeping. Trading troubles. Spouse troubles. Do I seem empathic? Perhaps. I should take it as a compliment. Or maybe on bad hair days, I resemble Ann Landers, which compels strangers to write Anyway, I am reminded of this quote we have all heard:
OK, confession time. I’ll admit it. I finally bought crypto last week. Never did it before until then. I bought Ethereum ($ETH).
Why didn’t I say anything? I suppose a superstitious belief that the millisecond after I said anything, it was go plunging to $0. But a bullish base is a bullish base, and it’s not accident that I’ve been marveling at the quality of the pattern. But there’s more to it than that.
Note from Tim. The following is kindly contributed by Buccaneer. The first part can be read here. I am not sure what preamble is required with respect to what I assume is an ongoing legal case, except to say that the words below are obviously a matter of personal opinion and none of these are offered as fact or conclusive findings: On Karen Bruton the Supertrader (KST) topic here’s my analysis about her case. (Links to SEC PDFs are here and here).
Unfortunately, the market had been moving up, and as you all know the adjustments to the Call side being tested can and do include selling Puts also. This works effectively if the volatility stays low and market keeps moving up or flattens out. But where you run into trouble is when this upward moving market suddenly dips with a big vol increase, which is exactly what happened with the Oct 2014 dip. So now Karen had sold many Puts at low vol in an up market, and they suddenly generated significant paper losses.
(more…)Note from Tim. The following is kindly contributed by Buccaneer. I am not sure what preamble is required with respect to what I assume is an ongoing legal case, except to say that the words below are obviously a matter of opinion and none of these are offered as fact or conclusive findings: On Karen Bruton the Supertrader (KST) topic here’s my analysis about her case. (Links to SEC PDFs are here and here).
According to the SEC’s complaint filed in federal court in Atlanta:
The two private hedge funds managed by Hope Advisers and Bruton – named Hope Investments LLC and HDB Investments LLC – have more than $175 million in net asset value.
From last evening’s post regarding the measurement of complacency or fear in the markets by using the Equity Put/Call Ratio, I stumbled upon a way of timing when those transitions are underway.
It all started as I was comparing the large negative divergence in the SPX:VIX ratio to the large one I recall from 2007. As I began marking it up, a light bulb went off as I realized that ALL of the major Equity Put/Call reversals had a concurrent divergence on the SPX:VIX chart. I will plot them above each other for easier comparison.
