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.

Gold, Stocks and the Miners

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One is the star of the year so far, grinding higher in what could be the launch phase of a new bull market as confidence wanes in the face of NIRP and other desperate global policy actions, and the realization that this disgraceful policy designed to spur speculation and asset price appreciation is all policy makers have got left in their bags of tricks. The endgame is a bag with a hole in it; a monetary black hole.

The other grinds on in what could be the last significant hope replenishing bounce before new downside is explored. Various US and global indexes are already in bear markets but casino patrons are trained to look at the S&P 500, Nasdaq 100 and Dow as “the stock market” and these have not yet gone ‘bear’. If the current bear-trend bounce fails however, that confirmation would be coming promptly.

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Failure to Bank

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I’ve had this post in my head for about a week now, although I’ve been debating whether to write it or not. The reason for my hesitation isn’t because what I have to say is particularly shameful (“I have a secret fetish related to capuchin monkeys………”) but it is one of those Earnest Trader posts which is prone to attracting stupid/obvious advice or, even worse, criticism. Part of the reason for Slope’s success, however, has been my openness, and I have no intention of changing that.

To come right to the point, even though we’re just a little bit into 2016, I have twice had “peak profits”, only to see the majority of them wither away. More specifically, I managed to put together a very handsome profit, peaking on January 20 (which happens to be the day I saved those two puppies in the park), only to see most of those profits get torched (see first green tinting below). A subsequent drop in the market allowed me to rebuild those same profits, step by painful step, to enjoy an even greater total profit by February 11th (second green tinting below) after which time the vast majority of those profits were, in turn, torched. (more…)

Paths of Glory

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A couple of Thursdays ago, we were all wringing our hands (or at least I was) about the powerful bureaucrat and lifetime government employee Haruhiko Kuroda and what his next move would be. He dropped a big bomb – negative interest rates – and created precisely the kind of market reaction he wanted………….for less than a single day. Since then, his world has once again fallen to pieces, since the cold fact of the matter is that Japan is doomed to be an old age colony, hopelessly mired in debt, with its economic glory of the 1980s an increasingly distant memory.

Even though these moronic central bankers are becoming increasingly impotent (a trait normally assigned merely to those who dared gaze at the hideous visage of Janet Yellen), we’re all still afraid of them and what they might do, simply because the horrid memories of 2009-2014 are too painful to forget. The latest chatter is about the Chinese government, and whatever falsified data they intend to trot out Sunday night. I personally wish they’d all choke on their chopsticks, but the universe seldom heeds the desires of Tim Knight.

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Apple’s Trek to the Ordinary

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Over the past ten months, in steps almost too small to be noticed by the mass media, Apple has shed over two hundred billion dollars in value. That’s nearly one quarter of a trillion dollars in wealth which would have fed shareholder dreams of new houses, new boats, new jewelry, and mink coats, but……….it’s gone.

The thing is, I think the slide is far, far from over. I wrote a piece earlier this year (which got picked up by some of the mainstream press) predicting that Apple would fall to the mid-70s. We’re already heading into the low 90s, so my goofy prediction is seeming a little less insane.

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