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.

Hedging Update — Foreign Currency ETFs

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Hedging Foreign Currency ETFs

For this post, I looked at the hedging costs of a basket of foreign currency ETFs. Something that jumped out of me when running the numbers on them was the hedging cost of the CurrencyShares Aussie Dollar Trust ETF (FXA). Not only was it the most expensive of these currency ETFs to hedge; it was also more than twice as expensive to hedge as the CurrencyShares Euro Trust (FXE). Given the continuing crisis in the Eurozone, I found that interesting.

The table below shows the costs, as of Thursday's close, of hedging FXA, FXE, and 4 other foreign currency ETFs against greater-than-15% declines over the next several months.

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Hedging Update

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Hey fellow Slopers,

Below is a hedging update as of Friday's close. Before that, a quick housekeeping note. A few of you have asked in the comments of previous posts when we're adding the optimal collar capability to Portfolio Armor. The short answer is that we plan to add that and optimal calls to hedge short positions later this quarter, but if you'd like more details on what we've got planned, see this post, which also includes a coupon code for the site.

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Developing Moneyball Trading Goals (by Ryan Mallory)

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When you are in a trade, regardless if it is going in your favor or not, ask yourself this question: Are you in it for this trade only or are you in it for what your portfolio will be worth at the end of the year?

In my previous post, entitled, "Finding the Stock Market's Moneyball", I talked about how Oakland A's manager Billy Beane started from the top goal that he had for the season and worked his way down.

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Finding the Stock Market’s Moneyball (by Ryan Mallory)

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I recently saw the movie, "Moneyball", which starred Brad Pitt playing the roll of Billy Beane (General Manager of the Oakland A's). I must say it was one of the best movies I have seen in years. And there wasn't even anything that belew up during the two-hour movie. Nonetheless, that movie was riviting, and as a baseball fan, I remember reading and following the Oakland A's back in 2002-2003 when they were defying the odds. 

But what Beane did with the Oakland A's is transform baseball in a major way. You see, we are all enamored with the home-run hitters. We associate the best players in the game with those who crush the most number of balls over the outfield fence.

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