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.

Harmony at Gunpoint

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Over just two days, I read the newly-published book We Have Been Harmonized cover to cover. For anyone interested in China, global economics, or high-tech surveillance, I heartily recommend it. The book is superbly written, well-researched, and comes from an author who is an expert in the field. In this post, I would like to explore some of the topics covered in the book.

For starters, I offer a philosophical question: Is there such a thing as a universal, indomitable human spirit? In other words, are all human beings imbued with the desire to live their lives freely and express themselves without fear of reprisal? Or is this notion simply coming from the head of someone like myself who has been blessed with life inside a western liberal democracy his entire life?

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Strictly Business

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You are passionate, Mozart. But you do not persuade.

Emperor Joseph II (Amadeus)

Buried among the thousands of comments over the past few days was this item:

slopetweet

I’ve given it a lot of thought, and I’ve finally decided: yes. You’re right.

I’ve been on Twitter since November 2007. I’ve got 21,000 followers there. If I had never made any kind of political remark, it would probably be more like 23,000 or more. So instead of $0 revenue every year, I’d be basking in $0 if I had kept my fat mouth shut. My mistake.

But the fact is that the Twitter feed should be about Slope, not me. And, as such, although I might put an interesting news tidbit in from time to time, it’s going to be just about Slope’s services and what’s happening in the financial markets from now on.

So if any of you have been uneasy about following me due to my, shall we say, unvarnished opinions, fear no more. I’ve decided Slope will be Slope. My Twitter feed will be a lot less fun. A lot less interesting. But a lot less trouble, too. Time for a change. The time is now.

Riot Quiet

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I didn’t know the symbol RIOT even existed until about a month ago when I noticed The Director was making amazing (virtual) profits with his RIOT calls. So I started following it.

I did a couple of premium posts last week about buying puts on this symbol (or going short). This was an insane idea, of course, because RIOT is joined at the hip to Bitcoin. As I wrote on my January 7th premium post, “Daring to question or challenge the ceaseless rise of crypto is a fool’s errand, but I’ll make that trip right now by way of the equity symbol RIOT. “

I followed that post with another premium post only hours later, stating that “RIOT should peak a little over 30.” and noting of Bitcoin, “we’re starting to reach the crack-up stage” and “I believe any sustained weakness is going to create a swift sense of panic.” This is the chart of RIOT I provided at the time:

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