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 Christmas Memory

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I grew up in the deep south of the United States, and as such, I have a certain allegiance to Truman Capote. Here, in its entirety, is his short story, A Christmas Memory. Merry Christmas, Slopers.

Imagine a morning in late November. A coming of winter morning more than twenty years ago. Consider the kitchen of a spreading old house in a country town. A great black stove is its main feature; but there is also a big round table and a fireplace with two rocking chairs placed in front of it. Just today the fireplace commenced its seasonal roar. (more…)

Khristmas Krap

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It’s hard for me to imagine a more appropriate way to celebrate the birth of the redeemer of our sins and the lamb of God than the shameless purchase of a bunch of useless crap that no one wants or needs. Having done a bit of flying recently, I took the opportunity to once again peruse the SkyMall catalog, from which I humbly offer these last-minute ideas:

Darth Vader Toast -“As the two suns rise over Tatooine (or just that single one over Earth), you’ll 1224-darthmake your toast and marvel at Star Wars logo branded into it. Be the first of your friends to place this on the countertop: Darth Vader’s helmet, dispensing perfectly prepared breakfast bread.” OK, look – I’m a Star Wars kid. I first saw it in 1977 and was hooked for life. But this is one of those kinds of gifts I can’t stand, because it is basically interesting and amusing for, oh, about one piece of toast. No one actually wants this. Certainly no one needs this. There are countless better ways to spend $45 than a device that will burn a logo onto your bread. (more…)

Stub Day

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SPX made a new all time high yesterday, so the stats I posted a month or so ago for what had happened in the past after big 5 DMA bull runs have now all played out, with everything within the expected ranges. This is a good illustration of why it’s often worth crunching some numbers after a rare setup like the all time record run in November of consecutive daily closes above the 5 DMA. The last small thing to take away from the chart below is that I would expect a minimum of two more daily closes above the 5 DMA, which should be over 2070 SPX by the close on Friday. SPX daily 5 DMA chart:

141224 SPX Daily 5 DMA Chart 2014

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