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.

Checking In with the Indexes

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I confess that I wasn’t exactly champing at the bit this weekend to look at charts. The grind since February 11th has been very tough on my zeal for trading and charting, and if this keeps up, I might have to rebrand this blog as the Slope of Dope and focus on cannabis cultivation and distribution (a topic I am wholly unqualified to address).

Having said that, let’s look at a few indexes. First, below, there’s the Dow Composite. I’ll be the first to say I was straight-up stupid to hang on to any shorts (let alone a bunch of them) during the rally I’ve tinted in cyan. But, honestly, the market “should” have stopped at that red circle. instead, it caught its breath and pushed into the green tinted area with a persistence that, honestly, I find shocking. If it pushes above the red line, I’ll consider myself wholly screwed.

0415-COMP

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Filthy Lucre

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When I was a boy growing up in Louisiana, our youth group at church had us do an enlightening exercise: we all fasted for a day.

Now, not eating anything for 24 hours isn’t a huge deal. No one is going to die from hunger. But for suburban kids accustomed to eating three meals a day, plus snacks, it’s a big change, and having access to only water quickly gave us a small sliver of empathy about what it would be like to actually not have a choice about being hungry.

When we met at the church the following night, we had all been fasting 24 hours. At that point, the minister picked about six kids at random, had them walk up to the stage, and he gave each of them a McDonald’s bag with a meal inside of it. They joyfully ate their meal, while all the rest of us watched on with true envy. It was the first time I knew what it was like to be jealous of someone who had something to eat when I was hungry. That is a memory that has stuck with me my entire life.

I will now tell you another story from the past to lead in to my general point.

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