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.

SlopeCharts’ Great Leap Forward

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I am absolutely delighted to let you know about a couple of terrific improvements to my beloved SlopeCharts platform.

(1) Panes – as we set about adding more technical studies to SlopeCharts, we decided to make the panes – – that is, the individual elements of the whole chart – – easy to rearrange. So if you want one study at the top, the price bars at the bottom, and the volume pane wedged in between, that’s your choice. Using the panes is a cinch: just hold down the Ctrl key and drag them around in any arrangement you like.

(2) MACD – the oft-requested Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) study is here! You will see it available in the new Studies tab at the top of the screen. (more…)

At the Junction of Risk ‘On’ and Risk ‘Off’

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[edit] As I do the actual work of plowing through NFTRH 472 I am noting some non-bond related indicators in line with the fading Junk/Quality ratios and easing Treasury yields noted in this post. If preliminary hints in these indicators intensify and long-term yield breakouts fail, we may get a market reaction of some kind and lurch to risk ‘off’ sooner rather than later. Most market charts remain straight up bullish. But charts are charts and indicators are a whole other animal.

This post serves as a public version (i.e. more wordiness than is usual in an NFTRH report) of NFTRH 472’s Bonds & Related Indicators segment. If you’re not following bonds closely, you’re not really following stock and asset markets. You’re throwing darts.

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Elliott Wave’s Last Stand

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Happy Friday, everyone. Greetings from the Starbucks on the Google campus, where I’ve spent 1103-phiso many days and nights writing about the market while charging up the ol’ car. While I am usually quite prolific, my writing output cranked way down the past couple of days (and, hey, what’s with Springheel Jack? He used to be like clockwork, and now it’s like a post or two a week?) Anyway, I intend to resume my accustomed output.

As a comment cleaner, though, I’ll share a brief thought or two with respect to Elliott Wave. Many people – – the vast majority, it seems – – scoff at this realm as a ridiculous pseudo-science, akin to astrology, tarot card reading, or using planetary cycles. They could be absolutely right. But I haven’t utterly dismissed it.

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How Times Have Changed

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One of my favorite little books is called Hey Skinny! Great Advertisements from the Golden Age of Comic Books, which pretty much describes the contents exactly. It is a hodgepodge of cheesy ads from the mid 1940s to late 1950s for all manner of junk, and it’s eye-opening to see via these come-ons just how much has changed in merchandising. I thought I’d provide a sampling for your amusement, not edification.

First up is the “Lucky Grab Bag”, in which children would send in their precious cash in exchange for a bag of……….stuff. God only knows what stuff would come back, but I suspect it was whatever overstock items happened to be laying around the office……..ballpoint pens, sanitary napkins, swizzle sticks. I suspect an entire generation of kids learned the meaning of disappointment from the receipt of these parcels o’ crap.

1020-grabgab

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Sunday Stroll through Index Park

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Based on what I saw during my visit last night, Disneyland’s newest ride is the Leap Over an Opioid Addict attraction just outside the park. They were all white males around thirty years old or so, sprawled out on the ground. At least it was more engaging than the boring Monsters Inc. ride inside the park itself.

But that’s not why we’re here. It’s a Sunday morning, and I’m out of posts (except for one waiting in the wings for the appropriate afternoon), so I’ll cobble one together. It isn’t easy, though. See, here’s what a normal market looks like:

1015-volatile

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