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.

Not To Be

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Some people, I suppose, consider the sort of person they would like to be. I, on the other hand, tend to think about what sort of person I do not want to be. The trouble is, I have been each of those people at some point in my lifetime. I wanted to share some thoughts about three of these anti-aspirational targets. I do this, oddly, in the context of thinking about everyone’s favorite obsession these days, which is of course AI.

Escalator Man

The year is 1982, and young Tim is in San Francisco by himself, excitedly heading into the giant underground convention space known as Brooks Hall. This was years before such niceties as Moscone Center existed, and the West Coast Computer Faire was still quite young, as was I.

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The Big One

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I have two trading accounts. One of them, my small one, is for dabbling in ETF options from time to time. Often it has absolutely nothing in it, and I don’t even bother having a watch list for it. My other account, the “big” account, always has positions, and typically has anywhere from 20 to 30 different put positions on equities, depending on how frisky I am feeling.

At present, my personal account is empty (I took profits on my XLB position this morning, although I am certain I’ll regret it mightily). My big account, which is what my watch list (that premium folks can see) contains, has 24 equity puts and 1 ETF put. I’d like to discuss that ETF put at length here, and the rest of this post will be visible to paying members only.

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Guide Us, Rolo!

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Below is one of the dogs I rescued named Rolo. Longer-time readers of Slope know that I was fortunate enough to find this beautiful beast in North Carolina and, saving him from euthanasia at the animal “shelter”, I was able to find him a safe and happy home on an alpaca farm.

He also holds a special place in Slope history, since I was tending to him in the midst of October 13, 2022, a market bottom that will live in infamy. More specifically, it seemed on that morning, when the market was plunging, that the bears were finally victorious. In the end, the bulls smashed our faces in, and we’ve been going up ever since.

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