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.

Stalemate

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Before I begin, a couple of bits of business. First, some folks have been expressing an interest in the brokerage Tastyworks. If you want to sign up, for the love of Tim, please sign up for tastyworks here  – – it doesn’t cost you any extra, and they throw me a few shekels for helping them out. Thank you!

Second, apologies to my PREMIUM customers for dialing back on my posts, but honestly, the G20 scares the bejesus out of me, and I promise to be more prolific once it’s out of the way. I am staying very light, as I’ve said ad nauseum, until this stupid get-together is over.

Today, Thursday, was basically Wednesday in miniature. Early weakness, strength out of the blue, and basically another bear-beating. Interestingly, the ES retreated from my “do not cross here” line (the high price of the previous “lower high”), but it’s horrifyingly close. (more…)

Ice Cubes for the Christmas Tree

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A few days ago, I stumbled upon a fun little riddle which you can see here. (The answer is here but try to solve it first). When I was a kid, I used to do brain teasers, tests, and puzzles all the time, and I was pretty good at them. I stopped being a student decades ago, though, and even though this riddle was labeled “Easy”, I gave up.

The approach I took was a logical and binary one. I simply tried the direct approach of trying to figure out which switches corresponded to which light. When I found the problem unsolvable and peeked at the answer, I saw that I had totally missed another data point (I won’t allude to it here, since I don’t want to spoil the puzzle for you). (more…)

Deconstructing the Crypto Genius

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James Altucher, the self-described “crypto genius”, is someone about whom I’ve written in the past, but as I gaze upon the smoldering landscape that used to be the thriving cryptocurrency industry, I feel compelled to write on this topic again, since I think Altucher’s marketing efforts a year ago speak so much about the nature of the crypto craze at that time.

To be clear, I have no axe to grind. I’ve never lost money with the guy. Never had any kind of personal or professional relationship. Never met him. But, like virtually all of you reading this post, I’ve seen his face countless times on ads (especially late in 2017 and early in 2018) touting the surefire investment power of crypto. He became, in the words of the press, the “face of Bitcoin” (I guess all the other faces were taken).

Altucher is definitely a man who could be described in totally opposite ways, all while being completely honest. You could, for example, talk about him as a successful entrepreneur, popular author, widely-followed podcast host, and multimillionaire venture capitalist. Every one of those things would be true. You could, with just as much honesty, describe him as a man with multiple failed marriages and relationships, a person who by his own admission blew tens of millions of dollars and was at the brink of suicide, and a man who has created businesses that have drawn the wrath of customers and the Better Business Bureau alike. All true. It depends on how you want to spin things. (more…)

Thanksgiving for Proper Gold Stock Fundamentals

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All through the bear market hopeful rationalizations were served up for a bullish case on the gold miners. All through the bear market we warned people not to eat that rotten turkey!

China demand, the China and India “love trade”, cyclical inflation driving up the prices of commodities and resources and the classic… economic growth in the US will create cost-push inflation through wage increases with the smart money seeking inflation protection in gold. All of those and a veritable Turducken of mishmashed ingredients were served to gold bugs as a decidedly not delectable appetizer before the main course.

But with a top in risk ‘on’ global markets now finally including the US (pending any holiday relief bouncing), the planets are aligning per the fundamentals that matter. This will drive up gold’s relational price to cyclical risk ‘on’ assets and improve gold mining bottom line operations (reducing miners’ costs per ounce of gold produced). (more…)

Brown Shoots

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Before I begin, I want to say I am DELIGHTED at how many folks are updating their avatars (or creating new ones altogether) with the “Santa hat” theme. We’re a lively bunch, we Slopers. Just click here to go to your profile and update your avatar (or give yourself one). All the cool kids do it, and it’s free!

Now, on with the show. I’m confident most of you remember this from early 2009:

greenshoots (more…)