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.

Betting on Failure (by Xerxes)

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It’s been a while since I’ve done a full post. Part of this may feel obvious since I’ve been notably bearish for just about a year now and being a bear has sucked big time since October, with some slight relief in December, and then again sucked big time in January. The other part of this may not be as obvious as I have other issues outside of just the market moving against me (i.e., a life outside trading). As such, that part of my life required attention. Now, here I am, still working on those outside issues, but today’s action at least deserves some commentary. So here is an update to my perspective on things.

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Reliving the Horror of PAIX

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It’s probably imprudent on my part to be so candid, but I’m known for being earnest, so I’ll just plunge right ahead.

As most of you know, we had some severe downtime today. At about 10:50 a.m. PST, our server load went from a normal 2% up to 80%, which basically brings everything to its knees. Our database load was 486% (no, I don’t know how that’s possible either, but it’s bad). Ironically, this all took place on one of the best “down” days we’ve had in months!

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