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.

I Know What They’ll Be Thinking

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As difficult as the stock market has been for equity bears over the past three years – – and as many false starts as there have been to the resumption of the bear market – – – there are a few hard truths which no sane person can deny:

+ There will come a point (if it hasn't happened already) that the market reaches a peak and begins a meaningful drop to much lower levels;

+ There will come a point (and, again, it may have happened already) that the reckless creation of new liquidity is forced to come to a halt, no matter how much the bulls want it to continue indefinitely;

+ The core changes that are coming at the end of this year in the political and legal scene will have a macro effect on the economy (specifically, much higher taxes, including far higher capital gains and dividend taxes, as well as a liberal President who will be completely liberated to do whatever he wants without any concern for any future election……….to say nothing of the debt, which has reached so many tens of trillions at this point that the figures have become meaningless)

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Happy Seventh Birthday, Slope!

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I wrote my first post for this blog on March 29, 2005, which was seven years ago today.

Looking back one year ago, I see that I did a pretty good post on our 6th birthday, so there's no need to cover old territory about how the blog was started and what I've learned in the time since then. Please read it (or re-read it) yourself. I'd like to strongly encourage you to do so, because what I said in that post rings even more true today than it did a year ago.

I will add this, however: the reason Slope is one of the longest-lived and most active financial blogs in the world is because of this community. Yes, I have enabled it through content and a superb homegrown comments system, but the community – – you – – constitutes the blood coursing through the veins of this body.

I am deeply grateful to you for your daily participation and interest in what goes on here, and for those many thousands of lurkers who don't think they can contribute to the comments stream, I would respectfully submit to you that you are wrong. Slopers are a friendly, smart group of traders, and you need not fear being perceived as anything but a brother (or sister!) in arms when you join the group.

So if you see a red bar in the upper-right corner of your screen, indicating you haven't signed in for a free account, please click "Create Account" in the upper right, and in about ten seconds you will be  part of the most bangin' group of traders on the planet. (Here's a quick primer). That way, we can enter our 8th year on Slope with you, rather than without you, and I'd greatly prefer that you join us for the ride.

0329-magseven

Elliott Wave Mad Libs

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Editor's Note: I will be away in {major U.S. city} at the {financial noun} Show the rest of the week, so Sparky will be doing the update on Wednesday and Friday. See you next Monday!

The wave status remains {descriptive adjective} to us and shows {small integer} waves from the {name of month} low. The market has been in a {uppercase letter} wave pattern with a rare {geometric shape} terminal wave that is in the {superlative adjective} stage of completion (EWT, page {double-digit number}).

The explosive and unprecedented rally from last October is a {three lowercase letters} terminal wave. This is key since {ordinal noun} waves are always ending waves.

Sentiment has reached another extreme with over {high double-digit integer}% of respondents bullish, a level not seen since last {month name}. Measured in "real money" terms, equities have actually been in a bear market since 2000 ("real money" defined as the ratio of the Dow Industrials to the price of {noun of perishable grocery item}).

The rise in {noun: metal} has been a {three hyphen-separated single digits} wave, so it's most likely next move is {directional adjective}, indicative of a {ordinal} of {higher ordinal} wave.

We will keep you apprised as the waves continue to unfold and reveal themselves.

Loathing in Las Vegas

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I'm not a very good hedonist, I guess.

Here I am in Las Vegas, and to my way of thinking, everything I hate about the human race is conveniently compressed into one tidy package.

And I ask myself: what's my problem? Why do I let places like this get to me so much? I mean, after all, why should I care what other people do with their time and their lives? What business is it of mine?

Well, it's none of my business, of course. The whole human race could wallow around in whatever it wants, and as long as it doesn't adversely affect me or the people about whom I care, it really shouldn't matter. And, on the whole, this is the state of affairs, because I have designed my life in a tidy little bubble and need not trouble myself with such thoughts.

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