Bullish on DUST
In a recent post (“ETF Walkabout”) Tim mentioned he was bullish on the 3x inverse gold miners ETF DUST, due to its chart indicating a quadruple bottom:
A Hedge for DUST Bulls
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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.
Now and Then
I was thinking of making this post a video, but I recognize that the problem with videos is that you actually have to watch the damned thing. Text and pictures are more accessible. So, here we are.
October has, in the five trading days we’ve experienced so far, been a big disappointment for me. I guess I should have assumed it would be, coming on the heels of a fantastic Q3 (both for my portfolio and for Slope in general). Everything goes in cycles. I’m just too much of a brat to be able to tolerate this kind of thing.
A Brazilian Reasons To Be Bearish
A Brazilian Reasons To Be Bearish
In a recent post (“A Brazilian with a Sudden Rip of the Wax”), Tim noted that Brazil ETF EWZ was in free fall. For those who haven’t been keeping up on the bad news from Brazil, the headline of this AP article from Tuesday will give you a sense of what’s been happening: “Brazil’s economy plunging; no relief in sight amid political, financial chaos”.
A Hedged Bet Against Brazil
Every trading day, Portfolio Armor ranks all of the hedgeable stocks, ETFs, and other exchange-traded products in the U.S. by its estimate of their potential return over the next six months, based on an analysis of price history and option market sentiment. Then it subtracts hedging costs, and ranks them all by potential return net of hedging costs, or net potential return. On Tuesday, the highest-ranked ETF, and the 6th-ranked security overall, was BZQ, the 2x levered bet against Brazil. Portfolio Armor calculated a potential return of 15.2% for it over the next six months.
Bonds Away
Reuters Poll: Most Primary Dealers See December Rate Hike
In an article late last week (“Wall Street banks eye December forFed liftoff“), Reuters reported the result of its poll of primary dealers on the prospects of a Fed rate hike over the next several months:
Twelve of the 17 primary dealers, or the banks that deal with the Fed directly,polled said they expect the Fed to raise rates in December. Two pegged the date in October, and three in March 2016.
When Interest Rates Rise, Bond Prices Fall (more…)
Apple Loses Its Cool
The Tao of Steve
In the movie “The Tao of Steve” (2000), the lead character associates the name “Steve” with cool, charismatic men such as the actor Steve McQueen. Apple (AAPL) co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs was famously cool and charismatic, and when he passed away three years ago, investors wondered what impact that would have on the company. As we now know, Apple rocketed to new highs over the next few years. The company had a product pipleline in place, and a wide moat: the convenience of upgrading to a new iPhone, for example, and keeping all of your data and apps, was and still is a powerful inducement to remain an Apple customer. Reactions to Apple’s San Francisco product launch event on Wednesday, however, suggest that Apple may have finally ran out of the residual Steve Jobs cool factor.
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