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.
Bull Market in Bad Cuisine
Recently, I was driving my family, and we happened to pass a Chili’s restaurant. My young son remarked, “That’s the restaurant for people too lazy to microwave their own food.” As you can see, there is no paternity test required. (In case you didn’t know, most of these restaurants do, in fact, simply microwave food that’s flown in from a central processing facility).
The sector is, I think, called “casual dining”, although I prefer to think of it as “places I would never eat.” For whatever reason – – draw whatever conclusions about our once great republic that you might – – people can’t get enough of this high-carb, high-fat, high-sodium crapola. Shareholders are having a bonanza. Here’s Cheesecake Factory: (more…)
A Case for Gold and Gold Mining Stocks
First, a thanks to Tim for letting me do my first guest post.…….
A Case for Gold and Gold Mining Stocks, by John Chinnock
Now that the entire world hates gold and gold mining stocks, I wanted to make a case for why they just might be an amazing long-term buy at these levels. I should preface this by saying first that I am not a typical gold bug. I do not believe that the U.S. dollar is going to zero, or that hyperinflation is coming. Actually, if I had to own any currency, I would favor the U.S. dollar over most others. However, I still am a gold bull. Let me list some points on why. My arguments here will be technical and based on historical data rather than fundamentals. There are valid fundamentals for the bullish case in gold, but that is beyond the scope of what I will discuss here. (more…)
Slimey Getting Slimed
There are a few companies in the past I’ve pointed out that, in my opinion, are exploitative and/or generally slimey. They had their glory days, but they’ve been really falling to pieces lately. The whole education-for-profit sector has been getting firebombed….. (more…)
What’s the Story, Morning Glory?
This is a good example as to why it’s a good idea to avoid “story stocks”. With the ebola scare, the handful of stocks that have anything to do with it went skyrocketing. One of them, Alpha Pro Tech, went up triple digits (in percentage terms) within days. All those gains were undone in a short amount of time as well. Take a look at LAKE for the same kind of 180 degree flip.
