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.

Metals Are Setting Up A Strong Upside Move

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NOTE FROM TIM: The item below was written by Avi at Elliott Wave Trader. Speaking for myself, I am bearish on gold (and even moreso on miners). I am short GDXJ and have a long position in JDST. Here, on the other side of the coin, is Avi’s point of view…………

First published on Sat Jul 15 for members of ElliottWaveTrader.net:  While I would love to suggest that we have begun the next larger degree rally already, the market has not provided me with strong indications that is going to be the case just yet.  While there are many indications that the market may have already bottomed, there are just as many indications that we may see the dreaded one more lower low before a lasting bottom may be seen.  But, I believe an investor should be preparing now for an impending rally which I believe will likely take hold over the coming weeks.

Now, whether we see that lower low or not, I want to highlight something of which you should definitely take notice, especially if you are bearish this complex.  Please take a look at the attached daily GDX chart.

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Successfully Played with Fire

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There are a couple of types of trading which appear to generate ungodly sums of profits (at least judging from the advertisements) – – FOREX and options trading. My personal experience with both of those has been bad enough to swear off them both years ago. Indeed, pretty much all options traders get their body parts handed to them in short order.

Some folks, however, fare better, and our own Baywolf shared this success story with the group:

0718-baywolf

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The Problem with Full Employment

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This is going to be very much a “First World Problem” kind of post, but here it goes.

Lately, I’ve noticed a problem here in town that I also noticed in 1999/2000 and 2007. Specifically, the lack of qualified,  motivated, or otherwise capable people in all manner of service occupations.

The cashiers at Whole Foods are getting increasingly sullen. The clerks at shops don’t seem to like what they’re doing. The high-tech workers are cranky and reek of entitlement. Downtown is littered with Help Wanted signs, but all the warm bodies are already at work.

This plays out even at high-end restaurants. The world-famous Nobu sushi restaurant opened in Palo Alto just a few weeks ago, but to the excitement of the citizens here. It joins other spiffy cities around the world as having a Nobu.

0718-nobu

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Active ETF Portfolio

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At the end of last year, I decided to make an experiment for myself. I established a portfolio at Merrill Lynch with which I intended to break with my normal style and (1) only have a handful of positions at a time (2) trade strictly ETFs. The portfolio has still had the bearish bias that pulses through my veins, although with gold and oil ETFs, it isn’t quite at the mercy of Yellen to the degree that my normal portfolio is.

I started my experiment with a $195,000 account,  I started off very cautiously, making a couple hundred dollars here, a couple hundred dollars there. As 2017 moved forward, I was able to relatively steadily get the account up to around a 10% gain, something close to $215,000.

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