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.

Bear Call Spread on XME

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Selling Premium in a High-Volatility Market: Bear Call Spread on XME

Before we dive into the details, a quick note — if you’re an options trader looking for clear, no-fluff education, I invite you to check out The Option Premium. The Option Premium is my free weekly newsletter dedicated to helping traders of all levels make smarter decisions with options. Each issue breaks down actionable strategies, market insights, volatility signals, and premium-selling setups — all through a risk-first lens. Whether you’re building your first iron condor or managing a multi-strategy options portfolio using poor man’s covered calls, you’ll find something here to add to your trading toolbox.

Volatility is back.

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Gold, Post-Bubble

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Gold, post-bubble, is a reflection of just how bad things are, and it’s likely to get much worse

My long-held opinion is that gold does little aside from anchor a sound monetary view in a Keynesian debt world gone mad. For decades, as the Keynesian way (credit/debt leveraged for growth) has been THE way, it has come to be taken for granted by the masses.

Hence, the pervasively accepted notion of a centralized monetary authority that manipulates interest rates – thereby manipulating money – in service to micro-managing an economy that should be left to its own natural devices (a quaint and seemingly out of touch notion, I grant you).

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