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.

Man, That’s Cheesy…

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By Biiwii

After the now-famous WSJ post, it seemed as if a bottom had just been called in gold…

Let’s Be Honest About Gold: It’s a Pet Rock

It seemed that the elements were in place for a contrarian rally if not bull market bottom. Along with negative gold items routinely appearing in the financial media and a Commitment of Traders structure that had become very bullish, gold sentiment was bleak by indicators we track in NFTRH.

My how a 6% rally with an accompanying stock market down spike have changed things…

sinclair, gold sentiment still not ready
Click for the video @ YouTube

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Microcosm Expanding

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macrocosm

NFTRH 353 introduced the idea of a Macrocosm, a planetary representation of elements that need to come into place for a real investment stance on the gold stock sector (as opposed to the imagined elements cooked up by perma-bulls over the last few years). The Macrocosm idea came to me when the gold sector was acting firmly counter-cyclical on a day that most other markets were suffering. Then it happened again.

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US Stock Market Mini Update

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Reviewing the US stock market picture from a few different angles…

NFTRH been using the Equity Put/Call ratio to gauge pressure on the US stock market for all of 2015. Many people think that anxiety indicators like this and the VIX are contrary indicators (i.e. when they spike you buy the fear in the markets, which often does work well) but when smoothing out CPCE using a moving average (weekly EMA 20 in this case) you get a trend.

The market benefited over long stretches from the calm atmosphere and the down trend in put buying vs. call buying. One explanation is that the market felt safe in mommy and daddy’s arms (Bernanke and Yellen, amidst ‘peak confidence’ in the Fed with a side of Goldilocks).

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Peak Oil? Peak Stocks?

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By Biiwii

Are Stocks the Next Oil (or Uranium, Copper, Silver)?

See: Oil collapse couldn’t come at a worse time for industry

See: 2007, when everyone was convinced of ‘Peak Oil’ and there were websites named ‘Peak Oil’, ‘Oil Drum’, etc. constantly reinforcing the mania.

I remember being away on business one day in 2007, with nothing better to do in my hotel room than watch the congressional debates about ‘peak oil’ and what to do about the evil speculators that were driving prices up. I enjoy watching a good mania as much as the next guy. I realized that what we were seeing was ‘Peak Hysteria’ with respect to this phenomenon. I thought, ‘Yup, Prechter’s right’.

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