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.

Gold Pullback Needed

By -

Note from Tim: I didn’t write this! Anyway………

The gold price reached a new record high this week, beating the previous record set on Sept. 5, 2011. The gold price kept rising past the record high to new heights as the week wore on, and now the $1,940 record that was set on July 28 appears to have become the new floor for the price amid today’s pullback.

The organization said this week’s record high gold price has been driven by a combination of several factors. They are high uncertainty, very low interest rates and positive price momentum. All of these factors support investment demand, but the World Gold Council added that there are reasons to believe that the market is still early in the cycle.

The coronavirus pandemic is still far from being over, and its impact on the world’s economy is still being worked out. The organization said some countries like China, South Korea and parts of Europe seem to be turning a corner. Globally though, hope of a rapid recovery is gone.

(more…)

Best H1 Activist Short Calls

By -

Those shorting stocks during the COVID-19 pandemic have made more than $50 billion in profits. Billionaire Bill Ackman recently said that activist short sellers are far more efficient than regulators at unearthing corporate frauds, and that regulators should work with short sellers. Here we take a look at the top 10 best performing activist short calls in the first half of 2020 that paid off big time.

Shorting stocks is a challenging business, especially during an economic crisis when regulators try to restrict short selling. But a crisis also brings tons of opportunities for short sellers.

Short sellers bet that a stock is going to fall. They borrow shares of a stock and sell them, hoping that it would tumble within a specified period. When it falls, they buy from the open market at dirt cheap prices and return the borrowed shares to the lender, pocketing the difference.

(more…)