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.
A Litany of Errors
I suspect some of you saw the article over on ZH about the “trader” who had the misfortune of having his entire account short KBIO which ripped about 700% higher this morning. The guy blew out his entire account (and a lot more) and put up this page to ask for people to help him make his six-figure margin call (the margin call itself is three times bigger than the original account). As of this writing, he’s raised about 1.8% of what he owes Etrade.
Having read the text of his GoFundMe page (which is typically used for more worthy causes, such as helping out families or individuals with medical emergencies or charitable organizations that need assistance), I wanted to review the entirety of his missive, since I think there are some important lessons in here. I’ve cleaned up some of the more egregious misspellings and syntactical errors, since it bothers me to sully my blog with such things. Here we go:
Hello to all you traders out there. I’m starting this page out of the recommendation of other traders in the community.
Mollycoddled
I was a grumpy old man even as a child, so this post emanates from that legacy.
I’ve been puzzling over the peculiar reaction the market had on Monday to the savage attacks that took place in Paris. Never would I have dared imagine that assets across the board would excitedly zoom upward following this brutal mass killing in one of the most beloved cities in the world. It just made no sense.
Two Ways Of Hedging Disney
Dying To See Star Wars
One of the trending hashtags on Twitter in recent weeks was #ForceForDaniel, a campaign to get an early screening of the new Star Wars movie for a dying fan, Daniel Fleetwood. Director J.J. Abrams had the film screened for the man at his home, as The Verge noted below.
J.J. Abrams helped a dying Star Wars fan see The Force Awakens early https://t.co/mXv5d0gAVv pic.twitter.com/bSjd5tdjEc
— The Verge (@verge) November 5, 2015
It wasn’t the first time, incidentally, that Abrams accommodated a dying fan: In 2009, he gave the late Randy Pausch (of Last Lecture fame) a cameo in his Star Trek reboot.
A Boost For Disney (more…)
