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.

PREMIUM: Futures News

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(Note: this was originally intended as a premium post, and it still mainly is, since the “news” is for the Gold and Platinum members who have access to commodities data in SlopeCharts. However, I am opening this post up to all readers, simply to share the gallery of static futures charts with everyone).

Greetings, beloved Gold and Platinum members. I’ve got bad news, and good news, and better news for you.

  • The bad news: Maybe “bad’ is overstating is, since, as Norm might say, it’s more of a comment, really: until now, a few of the futures were drawing data from non-standard exchanges, which frankly led to some weird price data. The shapes of the charts was accurate, but the prices were different (as if they were priced in another currency). The biggest example of this is Gold, and some of you have written, wondering why the gold chart looks good but the latest price is something like $200.

  • The good news: This entire issue has been fixed! Not only is the shape of the chart proper now, but – holy of holies – the price data actually makes sense, too. Huzzah!

  • The better news: Presently, the quantity of futures data is quite modest. This month, we will be expanding this data by an order of magnitude. I’ll also be updating the interface in SlopeCharts to better organize the data and make it easy to access. So………good things are on their way!

Here, then, for your viewing pleasure, are the futures available now, with a few mark-ups by me:

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First Talk Impressions

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SlopeTalk isn’t even a day old, but I wanted to say a few words about how things are going so far.

I’m pleased to see that our testing stood us in good stead, as the page seems stable and the product is, I believe, quite feature-rich. As I mentioned at the introduction, this week is dead quiet across the board (take a look at the volume on the SPY if you need proof), but I very deliberately rolled out a “community” product when there is hardly any “community” in order to keep risk very low.

I saw a few folks ask about getting a Futures channel, so even though there is already a Metals and Energy channel, I’ve added Futures for all the other stuff (such as, notably, the equity futures). One fellow made an eloquent argument for sort of an “omnibus” channel which would show the content of all the channels at once, but I’m not sure if that makes strategic or technical sense yet – – we’re exploring it.

Next month, I intend to be promoting SlopeTalk rather widely in an effort to spur participation. If you have any specific suggestions, as always, feel free to drop me a line directly. Thanks for embracing this new page so warmly!

Introducing SlopeTalk!

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After a substantial amount of time and cash investment, SlopeTalk is live and ready for you to use and enjoy! I have written very thorough documentation, which will take you just a few minutes to read in its entirety, right here. Everyone is entitled to access the page, which is here. I look forward to seeing how Slopers make use of this page, although I want to be clear I am deliberately introducing this on the quietest week of the year so we can have a “soft” opening of this new product………..so don’t be surprised that it’s thinly-populated at first.

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