We are going to start with this picture of one Lucas Duplan, about whom I last wrote nearly a full decade ago. The post is worthy of a re-read, since it’s especially sassy, even for me.
Stanford Gets Gross
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.
In the Mix
Heading into the weekend, it seemed the big question was how peace talks would go. By Saturday, it was clear that they weren’t even going to take place, which in saner times would have meant a total wipe-out on Monday (that is to say, today).
In fairness, there WAS a gap down on Sunday when the futures opened, albeit a modest one, and even then, the market bottomed within minutes before dusting itself off and moving to LIFETIME HIGHS on the /ES, the /NQ, the /RTY, and any other index you might care to mention.
Suffer!
Our Sunday sermon is going to be about something I think about quite a lot, which is the nature of suffering. Let us begin our examination of this topic with some notable precepts from various world faiths.
Buddhism
The First Noble Truth (Dukkha) describes suffering as a fundamental reality to be understood and overcome: “Birth is suffering; ageing is suffering; sickness is suffering; death is suffering; sorrow and lamentation, pain, grief, and despair are suffering; association with the unpleasant is suffering; dissociation from the pleasant is suffering; not to get what one wants is suffering…in brief, the five aggregates of attachment are suffering.”
Knights of the Realm
I’ll be the first to say it: my surname rules. It’s monosyllabic but pregnant with meaning. Perhaps one of my children will be a Senator one day and make good use of the name. I mean, for God’s sake, we’ve got a Senator Crapo, so certainly a Senator Knight would be a superb brand. God knows they’d be smarter than any of the others.
The Worst Good Feeling
On this momentous morning, which could either be one of the most important inflection points in market history or another Taco-driven bore-fest, I’d like to discuss an important phenomenon that I’ve experienced more than once in my life. It is best described in steps:
- I uncover a spectacular opportunity by way of my charts
- I write about it and position myself in that investment
- I am expecting it to “behave” perfectly, but it moves against me to a small degree
- I become disillusioned and frustrated that it is not doing what it “should” do
- I dump it at a loss out of exasperation
- It moves against for me a little while longer, making me feel good I’ve made the right choice
- It then proceeds to make precisely the kind of magnificent move I predicted the entire time
