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.

Slope Contest 2016

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It’s been a while since we’ve had a good ol’ fashioned Slope Contest. What better event than the upcoming presidential election in just under 100 days. (Tuesday November 8th in case you were wondering).

So, the rules are simple… you must post your guess on this post. It must be timestamped no later than Friday August 5th. You may not edit your comment after August 5th since we won’t be able to tell what you edited even if it was just to fix a typo.

No added commentary! This is not meant to open up a discussion/debate/pissing match, it’s only to have a little fun.

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Where Will Gold Bottom? (by Mr. Wizard)

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“Gold’s going to $1000, it’s very clear from the charts.”

“Gold has to hit $800 before it finds a bottom.”

I’m here to call you on that $800 prediction, and in fact go you one better: gold is going to drop at least $400, and possibly more. No, I’m not trying to one-up all of the dire numbers various pundits have thrown out as to where the price of gold will eventually reach. Nor am I claiming that bearishness has reached a climax, and secretly hoping this is The Bottom. In fact, I don’t even believe the analysis I’m about to present is correct. So why bother to write a few hundred words about something I don’t agree with? Simply because I have been investing in gold for over 12 years, and as a prudent investor it’s vital that I consider bearish as well as bullish scenarios in my investment.

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Healthcare is Broken (by DocSean)

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Controversial or not, Obamacare is now the law of the land.  Depending on who you survey and how, rates are better for individuals than before, or they are more expensive.  One thing is for certain, more and more people are being subsidized for health benefits than were before.  But is this the real issue at hand?

I’ve always been told if the wheel isn’t broke, don’t fix it.  In the case of socialized medicine, I believe we refused to address the real underlying problems with our medical system today.  The system IS broken, and all we did was throw billions upon billions of additional dollars at that same system.  This is not to say that everything about our United States healthcare program is a failure.  In fact, I content that for emergency care and certain surgical procedures, we are by far the best in the world.

DocSean1

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Casual, Unofficial East Coast Slopefest

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Slopers and Sloperettes, Mrs. Ig and I would like to cordially invite any and all interested friends to come to Carolina Beach, North Carolina, on Friday, October 10, and/or Saturday, October 11. We have a special guest visiting that week all the way from Denver, Colorado… none other than Slope’s very own ‘The Dude’.

Many of you old-timers know Dude, as he’s a veteran of our little community, and we figured we’d open up our recently acquired vacation home to any Slopers who wish to take a mini-vacation and meet other members of our virtual family while he’s visiting the east coast.  And it’s just a good excuse to have a friendly gathering.

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An Introduction to Trading and Artificial Intelligence (by Mr. Wizard)

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This is a short primer on applying Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques to your trading activities. AI can bring a fresh approach and a different perspective to anyone willing to invest the time and effort to learn how to combine some simple programming skills and common trading knowledge.

First off, I will fully admit that while I am not an expert in either trading or artificial intelligence, I know a bit about both, which is probably just enough to be dangerous. Furthermore, I will make the claim that being a mediocre programmer and a semi-skilled trader puts you ahead of either world-class programmers that know nothing about trading, or top-notch traders that do not understand the basic concepts, advantages, and limitations of AI. Think about your current skills and where the biggest bang for invested time lies. If you buy commercial AI trading software to save some effort, expect that just throwing some data and a few preselected indicators at it will not be very productive.

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