Last month on Slope, we looked at how an hedge on JC Penney (JCP) from mid-August had reacted to the stock’s fall up until that point (“Softening The Blow For JC Penney Longs“). With JCP falling below $8 per share to a new 31-year low on Friday, I thought I’d post a quick update on that hedge. Recall that we initially posted that hedge on August 13th (“Getting Paid To Hedge Bill Ackman’s Riskiest Investment”). (more…)
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.
Movies about Rich People
My (still relatively new) subscription to Netflix has given me access to a lot of documentaries I have never seen. Based on prior choices, Netflix suggested a couple of movies to me related to wealth maldistribution. One of them was called Park Avenue, and I highly recommend it. The movie shows just how different the super-rich are from the rest of us, and how, in spite of their massive wealth, their main motivation is simply more wealth for the sake of more wealth. John Thain (who was born with what must be one of earth’s more punchable faces) is one of the zillionaires featured.
I was also directed to The One Percent by Johnson & Johnson heir Jamie Johnson. I thought it was pretty cool a zillionaire was doing kind of an expose on the moneyed class, but I gotta tell ya, I stopped watching after about fifteen minutes. The reason was that I couldn’t stand listening to the narrator (Jamie’s) voice. For voiceovers, he spoke in a complete monotone, and for on-camera, it was just plain annoying. When you get used to the professional narration on things like Ken Burns documentaries, it can spoil you. If you want to give it a whirl, though, here’s the whole documentary:
Where Tourists Snore and Decay
Business Insider Plumbs New Depths
Pixel Perfect Junk
While strolling through charts (which, let’s face it, is pretty much all I do with my life), I was struck by how amazing the High Yield Bond ETF (symbol JNK) is lining up with its various trendlines. It completed a diamond pattern (not to be confused with this similar item), and it’s been inching slightly higher, day by day. It’s really quite remarkable, to me at least – – and if it breaks that current ascending trendline, it’s reversal time. For now, though, it continues to just trudge higher, pixel by pixel. (more…)
