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.

Tilting at Golden Windmills

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dq.windmillsThere is a writer we’ll call Don Quixote who is tilting at something that no longer really exists… the evil gold promoters that used to be taken seriously by innocents to the tune of near total destruction of their portfolios.

Don once went on about the gold cult and I even highlighted his post because I had been going about the gold cult as well. The cult-like aspect of the gold “community” (← a dead giveaway) was real, and the group-think that the 2001-2011 bull market fostered was very strong and really damaging to those who did not question it tenets until it was too late.

But here’s the thing… it is now 2015 and nobody takes gold bugs spewing about a $2,000 PoG (if there are any of them left) seriously. But still Don tilts at the active promoters he imagines around every corner. Methinks Don is creating a niche of his own, firmly within the new phenomenon that has manifested in Martin Armstrong’s wake. Behind Marty have come a growing number of those who would save us from the evil promoters.

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Gold CoT Improving, But…

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Gold’s CoT data predictably improved again this week, but here I think some discussion is needed just in case it starts to get hyped too much.

Below is the CoT on an improving trend of Commercial short covering and large Speculator long reduction. Okay, that’s good. But here is the part where the hype needs to be tuned out. The CoT tends to degrade (i.e. trend in a bearish direction during gold rallies) and improve (i.e. trend in a positive direction during gold corrections). The charts of CoT and gold below are set over the same 1 year time frames…

au.cot

gold

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Gold: Value, Re-Propositioned

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Last weekend, in a segment titled Gold Obsession & Ephemeral States of Mind NFTRH 330 talked about a growing presence that seems to follow Martin Armstrong’s anti ‘gold promoters’ theme. This theme seems to be – coming as it does in a gold bear market – something of a promotion itself; just as the over-the-top inflationist gold bug stuff was during the bull market.

Please understand, dear followers of Marty, I am not at all calling him a promoter. He is the originator of ideas, thoughts and analysis that while not all my cup of tea, is interesting enough that it is linked at NFTRH.com and Biiwii.com. But behind this mindset that is solidifying in the public consciousness, is a growing cadre of gold bugs – some of whom benefited from the notoriety lavished upon them by the likes of Mr. Gold, Jim Sinclair – that seems to be taking things over the top*, as always seems to happen with humans and in markets. Every mental elastic band seems to stretch too far.

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4 Safe Haven Investments to Replace Swissy & Gold

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Trying not to pre-judge the title as flat out stupid, let’s proceed to the article…

Four safe-haven investments to replace Swiss francs and gold –MarketWatch

Where to park your money until the next crisis blows over

Greece is on the edge of a dramatic exit from the euro EURUSD, -0.09% . The Russians are meddling in the Ukraine again. The oil price CLH5, -0.46% has been hammered, creating an arc of instability across the Middle East. The global economy is, as is so often the case, poised on the edge of another crisis. If it happens, money will start fleeing to safe havens, somewhere where it can be safely parked to ride out the turmoil.

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