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.

Summertime Blues

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In Louisiana, where I grew up, the local weatherman was pretty much a celebrity. Why would that be? Because he was important, all year long. The weather changed a lot, and during hurricane season, it was particularly important to stay on top of the weather. Indeed, as a kid, one of my favorite things to do was to track, on graph paper, the various storms and hurricanes as they moved toward us. It was the first sign that I like drawings which showed dynamic change. I could longitude and latitude the hell out of that paper.

Here in Palo Alto, it’s a different story. I offer to you Exhibit A:

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Rats!

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In the past, I’ve written that a person’s immediate reaction to a sudden situation is highly indicative of their internal character. This, to me, seems obvious and self-evident. The example I usually give is if a person is confronted with a situation (such as a building bursting into flames) in which they are immediately forced to choose between doing something heroic (some may say foolish) or elect instead to be passive (and thus safe). Heroes, I believe, are largely born, not made.

Perhaps you saw a video that just came out of a couple visiting Mexico who were terrified that they had been hunted down by a murderous cartel. I feel bad that these two men went through this ordeal, although I confess to smirking a bit at their pearl-clutching reactions (just watch the video). All the same, I’m glad they’re all right. I share this video simply because it’s one of those instances in which raw feelings are exposed because one doesn’t have the opportunity to think of a reaction and then act it out.

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Hemming the White Flag

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This is a new low. And not the kind of low I enjoy.

I can’t remember a time I’ve felt more despairing about the state of the market than right now. From June 16 to August 16 of last year, we had a two month ascent that I thought was the worst period of my trading life.

That was a walk in the park – – a party – – a festivus – – compared to what’s been going on for the past eight months. I say again, EIGHT MONTHS. I could actually argue twelve months, but October 13th was nominally a lower price point in the market, so I’ll just say eight, even though the easy part of the market stopped cold on June 16th, almost an entire year ago. It’s been pretty much a slog ever since.

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The Source of the Red

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Last night, I was doing what I always do when I’m out of projects, which is that I roamed Slope, polishing things up here, tidying up things over there, and basically making this 19-year old creation a little nicer for you each day. Something occurred to me in doing so: there is SO MUCH here, and, frankly, it is SO good. To me, it’s bewildering that Slope isn’t a hundred times more popular than it is. I mean, honestly, this isn’t just a proud papa talking: this is SUCH a great site. I bet you aren’t even aware of 70% of the stuff in here, because it’s so easy just to hang out and chew the fat with other traders, but honest to God, the fact Slope isn’t the home page for every trader is a travesty.

The point is driven home for me when I visit other sites that I considered, at one time or another, rivals. I won’t name names (or give URLs), but I visited a couple last night, and they are utter crap. Not only has the feature set not changed for years, but there are SLATHERED with advertisements, which is totally annoying and intrusive. As some of you know, I have fought back the temptation to have ads, since I don’t want my beloved Slope sullied with crass, annoying garbage. Would you really like to have to constantly be closing pop-up ads? Yeah, I didn’t think so. So maybe throw in a few bucks.

Meh, don’t worry, TIm. If an honest-to-God bear market starts, your problem isn’t going to be why the place isn’t more popular. Your place is going to be having the servers keep up with the traffic.

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