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.
“I’m a blogger now, but I really want to direct.”
From time to time (when I have the time), I like to have a little fun with videos. I have many other ideas up my sleeve for other videos I’d like to create – particularly spoofy ones – but we’ll collectively have to wait. In the meantime, here are some odds and ends I’ve done in the past:
Over the course of the years that Slope of Hope has been around, a subculture has developed around it, with its own personalities, folklore, and language. Newcomers may find a handful of terms perplexing. I want to be a good host, so here is a handy reference to the terminology you may occasionally see on the board:
AJC – Abby Joseph Cohen, the exotic and mysterious twinkle in Tim’s eye………..plus an astonishing market prognosticator!
BRD – Big Red Down – a declaration that the market is going to move down very soon. This is usually proffered as a wild guess but, when accurate, is cited as a testament to the individual’s predictive abilities.
Bulltard – a relentlessly-optimistic proponent of the stock market invariably pushing higher.
Comment Cleaner – A short, usually content-free blog post whose sole purpose is to keep the quantity of comments one must download to a reasonable figure. The use of this phrase has diminished due to its shameless repurposing on other blogs.
/ES – The S&P e-mini futures contract, a popular trading vehicle among active traders.
NEW POST – An attention-getting comment that Tim posts to encourage people to hop on to his most recent musings. This clever phrase has been pinched by a number of other blogs.
OTIS – “Oh, This Is Silly” – a pronouncement made by a Sloper about something absurd (which typically involves a hyperbolic equity valuation).
PPT – The Plunge Protection Team, more formerly known as the Working Group on Financial Markets. This Federal force is meant to squash bears. It never works over the long haul, although it is very painful in the short- and medium-term.
Retracement Levels – A subscription-based web site popular among Slopers. Also known as RL, and authored by the aforementioned 2sweeties.
S.A.D. Snark And Despair indicator, explained here.
SLIX – a fabricated indicator based on the popularity of Slope. Historically, a surging popularity of the blog indicates an imminent market reversal to the upside.
Slopers – The guileful and erudite individuals who frequent this blog.
SOH -Slope Of Hope.
Sweet Jesus on a Biscuit! – A rarely-used and esoteric interjection proffered by Tim based on a particularly surprising event or observation.
The Lunge (AKA The Thrust, The Big Ride, The Bliss, and The Surge) – The anticipated multi-month raise that occurred in 2009 and 2010.
The Plunge (AKA The Bust, The Big Slide, The Abyss, and The Purge) – The crushing fall of equities following the above-mentioned Lunge/Thrust/Ride/Bliss/Surge that ostensibly will take place Real Soon Now.
Tim’s Girl – synonymous with Christine Romer, the Chair of the Council of Economic Advisors. Ms. Romer is honored by occasional mentions on this blog because of the weighty issues she is tackling with this behemoth of an economy. I could blubber on about the meaty tasks she is facing, but the gravity of the situation is clear – – if she cannot cut the fat that she and her team uncover, this nation’s problems will be gargantuan. Fortunately, Ms. Romer has a voracious appetite for solving problems, and she recognizes that if the mammoth crisis facing our economy isn’t addressed, it will simply get bigger and bigger.
TK – Tim Knight, your good-natured, affable host.
Toshi – Early in Slope’s history, Tim showed this helpful video which is simultaneously disturbing and hilarious. Former regular Leisa henceforth referred to Tim as “Toshi”, and, like the hostess of the aforementioned clip, the name stuck.
There are far too many blogs for any one human to track each day, but a few have “bubbled to the top” for me in my own trading:
Written by a long-time Sloper in Paris (known as Royale with Cheese – who also is good enough to keep me supplied with chocolates), this blog focuses on – you guessed it – ETF trading. The blog has a sharp, clean logic and a lucid use of charts that I appreciate.
Written by the omnipresent Tyler Durden (a pseudonym for a whole stable of anonymous writers), ZH is the go-to site for the latest information on the doings of Goldman Sachs and Wall Street in general. This site is a Sloper favorite; it’s also one of the few sites that make Slope seems conservative in its tin-foil-hat-ness.
Gary Savage has been on Slope for a long time, and although he and I have often differed in opinion, he garners a lot of respect from me due to his dispassionate and thorough analysis of the markets. This site is especially useful to those interested in precious metals. Gary’s cycle analysis and insights have been very useful to me.
(Note: if you’d simply like to know how to participate in comments, please read this post as well as this important update).
Since I began writing this blog in early 2005, the community that reads it has grown tremendously. Each day, thousands of comments are posted, and plenty of “old timers” have made names for themselves in terms of their insights and trading prowess. Hang around for a week, and you’ll quickly pick up on the pulse and personality of the Slope of Hope.
Discussion is a vital part of the site. People learn from one another, share ideas, offer suggestions, and create an “atmosphere” to the site which makes it somewhat self-sustaining.
I have been involved in online communities since 1982, over a decade before the public Internet even existed. Over the course of that quarter century, I’ve become pretty adept at sensing and understanding the nature of an electronic community.
This is my blog, and I tend to be open to divergent opinions. Having said that, I do consider this place to be similar to a gathering at my house………my goal is for people to enjoy themselves, learn from each other, and want to return. But if someone chooses to act unpleasantly, I’m going to ask that person to leave (or, more accurately, ban them).
There seems to be some confusion as to what is welcome and what is not. The following items are very welcome in the discussion:
+ URLs to sites or articles that you think might be helpful for other traders (you should use the “Link” feature for these for best results)
+ Occasional links to other trading blogs, including your own (as long as it is free)
+ The sharing of trading ideas (using the “Idea” feature)
The following items are not welcome and will cause me to consider booting you:
+ Advertisements of any kind, including those for fee-based trading sites
+ Abusive or obnoxious language/behavior, particularly to your good-natured host
+ A consistent attitude or disposition which stinks the place up
Please note that Slopers also embrace good spelling and syntax. Anyone with a solid 6th grade education should know the difference between a contraction and a personal pronoun and have a reasonable grasp of how to spell common words.
Your presence here is a gift to me. The time I put into this blog is my gift to you. But if you do not want to accept the gift, I would prefer you not come here. Otherwise, I appreciate your making Slope a part of your reading.
Tim started writing this blog on March 29, 2005 simply as a personal diary. Over the months and years, readership of this blog has increased to tens of thousands of people every day, even though the blog’s purpose – Tim yammering on about charts and the markets – hasn’t changed much.
This blog is not, and have never been, investment advice. It is a free blog that allows me to express my own views on the market and specific securities – as well as make whatever cultural observations or other odds and ends strike me as worth writing about. So I take absolutely no responsibility for the losses – – or any credit for the gains – – you may or may not make from reading this forum. Whether you lose your life savings or make a fortune is entirely up to you and your own skills/luck/fate.
Several things to remember about this blog:
Please note I am the principal of Tim Knight Organization, LLC, a California-registered investment adviser. The content of the postings and investment strategies and discussions provided herein do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions or policies of Tim Knight Organization, LLC and Tim Knight Organization, LLC makes no warranties regarding the accuracy of their content or their completeness.
