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.

Regarding Gold

By -

If you are not a casino patron and if you are patient, you will
realize that the disconnect of gold from the ‘risk on’ trade currently
taking a manic and global center stage is a good thing.

gold bar

Gold, a big hunk of value storage in a monetary world gone off the
charts, just sits there, waiting out the ridiculous lurches by casino
patrons over the years.

Summer of 2011, casino patrons jerk to the right (momo'ing a store of value).  Winter of 2013, casino patrons jerk to the left (momo'ing risk).

Do you see the humor and the tragedy in all of this?

http://www.biiwii.com

The Fruits of Op/Twist Continue to Ripen

By -

We have noted repeatedly that Operation Twist served to benefit
strategic areas (like housing) with its purchases of long dated Treasury
bonds, which kept rates down on the long end.  We have also noted that
Twist sought to sanitize these asset purchases by selling short-term
Treasury bonds to keep the yield curve tame and snuff out any inflation
signals that would come from a rising money supply.  Enter Goldilocks.

It’s all lies.  It is a painting rendered by a most brilliant of Fed
chiefs playing tricks with the nation’s bloated debt load.  People are
buying the stock market now and they (and their investment fund
managers) probably don’t give a damn about what created the rally.  It’s
Goldilocks and that’s all they are concerned with.

hgx

I distinctly remember watching the first yellow highlighted bullish
pattern form.  Here, don’t believe me?  I am a perma bear?  Here’s the
post from back then (7.3.12):

Housing Index Targets Higher

I did not buy it because I find it difficult to buy things that I
either don’t believe in or are entirely dependent upon overly powerful
people doing things that should be illegal in order to manage markets to
desired outcomes.

But the chart was the chart and it was bullish.  HGX has since gone
on to much higher levels than I had anticipated as it carries along the
absolute dumbest, most greedy money on the planet in tow.  These people
were hiding in foxholes last summer.

Just remember that if you want to go chasing this market.  These people are your co-sponsors.

Risk vs. reward on the broad US stock market stinks.  I was not
afraid to call it bullish last summer and I am not afraid to call it
what it is now.

http://www.biiwii.com

Ding Ding Ding?

By -

Behold the beauty of this title:

Investors Most Optimistic on Stocks in 3-1/2 Years in Poll


As I was reviewing this morning’s news items the above headline stuck out like a sore thumb.

A little stroll down memory lane:

In May of 2012 NFTRH 188 used this graph among other indicators to get bullish on a risk vs. reward basis, stating “and then there is this beauty… the dumb money has lurched hard to ‘risk off’.

smart_dumb_new_small

Smart/Dumb money confidence, May, 2012

(more…)

CCI-Gold Ratio Will Tell the Story

By -

The story referenced in the title being whether or not global policy
makers can cook up an inflationary up phase in the global economy.  I
had used the term ‘i2k12′ early last year referring to the prospects for
what might ultimately be an inflationary 2012.  Well, they came with
the QE at year-end and now the theme shifts forward to the prospects for
i2k13.

A subscriber forwarded to me an audio of Don Coxe talking
about the changes coming out of Global Policy Central in “Basel
Greenlights Banks Big Time” and it turned out to be a good starter for a
post in which I would like to try to delineate some things.

You may have heard me belly ache in the past about the raving
inflation bulls who lump gold and gold stocks in with the entire
inflation trade?  Gold is copper is oil is hogs?

(more…)

Gold Bears Out of the Woodwork and Into Your Head?

By -

You know what I mean… the rising tide of gold bearish articles now
flooding the blogosphere.  Smart writers far and wide schooling gold
bugs about how gold is going to 1400 or even 1200 as the economy
strengthens and the disaster premium is removed or as a deflationary
spiral takes hold.  Talk about opposite ends of a spectrum from which to
bear talk the monetary metal.

Yes guys, gold became sponsored by the dumbest, most knee jerky money on the planet… 1.5 years ago
at the height of the euro crisis!  Now you pile on and try to school
the masses on contrarian theory?  It really looks a lot like trend
following and wanna be heroism to me.  But whatever.

So where were these contrarians in summer, 2011 when when people
should legitimately have been concerned about gold’s dangerous sentiment
structure due to the big knee jerk into the metal?  Where were the
know-it-alls just after the recent QE3 when this was inserted into our
newsletter?…


(more…)