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.

Ego Petram, Ego Pluma

By -

You would think it had all caused me harm, what with all the fuss I made about the market’s rise. It’s just the insanity of it all, though. And I’m not trying to be a drama queen. Or king. Or any kind of emotional royalty. This has simply been insane. And that is a word I freely use, even having lived through the mayhem of 1999/2000.

The NASDAQ, of course, slipped right over the Big Round Number of 10,000, and the permabulls couldn’t be happier. Sort of like the effect the Big Round Number of 5,000 had back in March 2000, just before the 83% collapse.

NQBUSR
(more…)

Hairy Ate Taubman

By -

Once in a blue moon, I have a short position utterly and totally blow up in my face. One of those positions in which, say, there’s a buyout and the stock gaps open 40%. Nasty stuff.

This happened back on February 10th. I was short Taubman, which is a big commercial retail landlord. I (quite correctly) speculated that commercial real estate was about to die, and the rounded top on TCO was amazing.

tabubdome
(more…)

Via Mundi Response

By -

My recent post Via Mundi (an awkward attempt by me to write “The Way of the World” in my rusty Latin) generated a lot of positive emails. I just got this one this morning that the author allowed me to share. The italics and boldface emphasis are my own:

I think it would be interesting to discuss how exactly the money made available by the Fed (and other central banks) actually reaches the market…

For example: how about buy backs? If the Fed gives free money to banks, they are not going to use it to lend money to average Joe to buy a car because that is a non-lucrative/risky business.

More likely the commercial banks will lend that Fed money to corporations like Apple, Amazon, etc., and also to smaller crappier corporations.

These corporations will take the money saying they want to use it for some AI projects or new robots, more shops, more hires, whatever.

(more…)

I’m. An. Ord. I. Nar. Y. Guy.

By -

No visible means of support and you have not seen nothin’ yet
Everything’s stuck together
And I don’t know what you expect starring into the TV set
Fighting fire with fire

It is a terribly difficult time to be a thinking person. Almost agonizing.

Hey, hold up there, Tim-bo. I’ve been buying stocks, and I’ve been doing great! I’m a thinking person!

No, you’re not. You’re opportunistic. You’re profitable. But you’re not thinking. You’re just in the right place, at the right time, with the right disposition.

I say again: this is a terrible time to be a thinking person. The more stupid you are, the better you’ll do. The more cloying, the better. A sycophant? You’ll thrive.

(more…)