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.

Why Should I Carolina?

By -

When I leave North Carolina on Tuesday evening (Bear Force One believers – take note! – although frankly I’m not sure what the impact of the market is supposed to be), I will have been away from my beloved Palo Alto for nearly two weeks. For a homebody like me, this is a epic-long time to be away. Having enjoyed my stay here, I had a few observations about the culture at large, particularly drawn from sixteen hours of driving from Durham to Myrtle Beach to Atlanta and then back to Durham again (a car trip big enough that you could hand me a globe and I could visibly draw it out with a Sharpie). In no particular order:

  • Guilty! – There is a tremendous amount of mindshare dedicated to the fact you are a SINNER and you need to be SAVED by JESUS. Giant billboards (often with red letters against a yellow background) insist upon your relying on Jesus to save your sinful ass from eternal damnation. One billboard in particular shows what appears to be a highway exit ramp, with one direction leading to hell and the other leading to glory. I seriously have no idea what these people have to feel so guilty about. I didn’t see anyone doing anything bad, except for the occasional obnoxious driver on the freeway (who was, 100% of the time, driving a Dodge Charger).
(more…)

The Pedal and The Pisser

By -

Just a couple of quick tidbits to share. First of all, although I think the bear market has scads of downside left, I’ve eased off in a few positions – – mostly energy, which continues to suck for the bears – – and am up to 25% cash. A nice hearty “buy the dip” bounce would be great, but it may or may not happen. I went from 34 to 28 positions and am probably done for the day. The point is that I was “pedal to the metal” at the open this morning but shaved off six positions completely and trimmed a few back to smaller size.

Second, none of you should really care, but just FYI, in virtual trading, it doesn’t deal with corporate actions. In particular, I had a huge TSLA put position, but since they split 3 for 1, I’m doomed to lose $89 billion on it, no matter WHAT the company does. My poor account! Oh, well. It’s only (fake) money.