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.

Culture Clash

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I made a point of NOT watching the ES and NQ starting yesterday afternoon, because I didn’t want to be jerked around by the nutty randomness of the markets right now. Why put my emotions through such stretching and yanking when we have no control over the outcome? At this point, we are collectively at the mercy of the emotions and cultural mores of two very different negotiating partners.

Just over the past dozen hours, senior US officials made clear they were serious about the tariffs (see magenta plunge). Surprisingly for such a face-saving culture, the Chinese delegation made plain that they were coming out to negotiate in good faith this week, as originally planned (green tint), almost erasing the entire drop. And then, drip by drip, futures sank even lower than before.

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