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.

How Two Microsoft Hedges Reacted To Friday’s Drop

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How Two Microsoft Hedges Reacted To Friday’s Drop

Tim raised an interesting question in a post on Friday (“Does Microsoft Matter“). As Tim noted, apparently its earnings miss and plummeting share price didn’t matter much to the broader market. But it did, of course, matter to Microsoft longs. Last month, when Microsoft hit a new high, I posted two ways for those longs to hedge against greater-than-19% drops over the next several months (“Two Ways Of Locking In Microsoft Gains“). In this post, we’ll look at how those two hedges reacted to the stock’s drop on Friday. (more…)

The Night Is Dark And Full Of Terrors

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The Night Is Dark And Full Of Terrors

That cheery catch phrase from the Red Witch in Game of Thrones came to mind when reading Tim’s post about the hammering GDX took on Tuesday (“The Gold-Plated Falling Knife“). On Wednesday, GDX’s biggest holding, Barrick Gold (ABX) got hammered, falling more than 8%. In this post, we’ll take a look at how a couple of hedges on ABX from early May reacted to ABX’s drop as of Wednesday’s close. (more…)

When It’s Cheaper To Hedge Junk Bonds Than Treasuries

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Down Elevator For Bonds?

In a post on Tuesday (“Bonds are Prone to Much Lower Prices”), Tim predicted that the iShares Barclays 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF (TLT) could fall to around $100 per share by the end of June. On Twitter on Friday, investor and newsletter publisher Bob Brinker offered a similar warning regarding the junk bond ETFs SPDR Barclays High Yield Bond Fund (JNK) and iShares iBoxx $ High Yield Corporate Bond Fund (HYG), both of which closed Friday near their lows for the day: (more…)

There Goes Tokyo

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There Goes Tokyo

The Nikkei 225 managed to claw back almost a percentage point during Friday’s trading session in Japan, after its brutal drop on Thursday. Recall that we looked at hedging the MSCI Japan Index ETF (EWJ) in our post last Saturday (“Big in Japan“). In this post, we’ll take a quick look at how those puts reacted to that Japan ETF’s drop on Thursday, and how the cost of hedging that ETF rose after Thursday’s drop. (more…)