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.

Bernanke Uber Alles (by BKudla)

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I had the best week of the year for me, percentage wise, yet left so much on the table running scared. This week will be just as much of a nail biter.  Wednesday, the German court rules.  At first I thought that this clearly violates their constitution, but recent rulings from our courts, and the total disregard for the rule of law in other matters relating to the bankers, has me thinking all systems go.  On Thursday Ben speaks, with the recent run up in the market, should be a sell the news event, but as my trading partner pointed out to me, they may already be doing QE3, and just decided to not tell us.

For me, risk management demands I continue to move up stops and scale down my size, and on Tuesday I will initiate some hedging.

For those who subscribe to me, I am going to add BOIL, which is a leveraged Natural Gas ETF to my focus list.  Nat Gas has bottomed, and I want to buy the dips and ride the moves with some leverage.  

Below are some charts and my portfolio and performance.

www.arum-geld-gold.blogspot.com

SPX 1440 Area Pivot Test (by Springheel Jack)

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Well that was a very strong trend day up yesterday after the ES descending triangle broke up. The ES pattern target was reached near the trading hours close so that pattern is no longer in play. Somewhat to my surprise SPX closed an impressive 8 points over the upper bollinger band and that's bullish, in the sense that yesterday's high was unlikely to be a major high, and a higher high should be expected. 

On the bigger picture though this close well above the bollinger bands has only been seen once before in 2012, and that was in the March final move up into the April 2012 high. That was also a move out of a bollinger band pinch on the daily chart. Of the the four closes well below the bollinger bands since the start of August last year, all preceded significant lows within five days, and only in August 2011 (also from a bollinger band pinch) did the move continue strongly after that close, with in that case two more trend days closing well below the bollinger bands as well:

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Descending Triangle (by Springheel Jack)

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SPX tested the lower bollinger band yesterday, and if this has just been a retracement, that is the obvious bounce level:

On ES descending triangle support was tested yesterday and there was a strong bounce from there. Triangle support is at 1395 and on an hourly close below the triangle target is at 1374 with rising channel support in the 1375.5 area. Triangle resistance is at 1309.5 and on an hourly close above the triangle target is in the 1432.5 area, slightly below major SPX pivot resistance in the 1440 area. These triangles break down 64% of the time of course, but have a much higher probability of making target on an upward breakout:

A 64% bearish pattern has a 36% chance of breaking up of course, and as it happens there is a very good example of one of these descending triangles breaking up recently. That triangle is on gold of course, and the target is in the 2050 area, comfortably above the current high at 1923.70. Gold has broken up from the triangle, retested the break and then made new short term highs. On Bulkowski’s stats gold now has an 84% chance of reaching the 2050 area:

There wasn’t a triangle on silver, but there was a perfect test there of rising support from the 2008 low, and then a break of the declining channel from the high, retest of broken channel resistance and further move up. As with gold this looks like a solid breakout and confirmation of a major trend reversal:

Looking at EURUSD, the first double-top target that I gave yesterday morning was almost made overnight. The next obvious support levels are the larger double-top neckline or valley low at 1.2465 and rising wedge support at 1.244. If EURUSD consolidates at the current level those two support levels could be tested near the same level in a day or two. On a break below both the larger double-top target is in the 1.23 area. I am expecting a test of rising wedge support in this retracement:

On CL there was a strong decline yesterday that re-broke the rising wedge support trendline. Overnight that held as resistance which looks bearish. There is some positive RSI divergence that makes me think that broken rising wedge support trendline may be tested again. On a break below 93.9 a double-top will trigger with a target in the 89.5 area. This topping setup could also be read as a sloping H&S with a target in the same area:

Overall I’m leaning bearish here. Descending triangles are a bear pattern, EURUSD looks weak, CL looks very weak and TLT is looking very strong. On the other hand we have not seen the test of the 1440 SPX pivot that I was expecting and some decent support has been tested repeatedly and held so far. The bulls aren’t out of the game yet, and you can see from the chart below that FTSE hit rising support from the June low at the low yesterday:

Good arguments for a break either way from here. We’ll have to see which way the triangle breaks. Until then 1409 looks a decent risk/reward short entry and 1395.5 a decent long entry as long as triangle resistance has been tested first. The next obvious move within the triangle is to triangle resistance at 1409.5 and a test of triangle support before that happened would have a higher probability of seeing that support break. 

Topping is a Process (by Springheel Jack)

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I posted the SPX chart below in my MarketShadows post at the weekend and I'll post it again this morning. You can see that full post here. It shows the very ambiguous close on Friday at the retest of broken support and at resistance on the declining channel from the high. I sketched in two topping options if we see a break up from there this morning, and they are that SPX has made the first high and valley low of a double or M top, or that SPX has put in the left shoulder of an H&S pattern. Either of those would obviously allow the current high to be tested or exceeded:

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