Semper Fidelis
Slope of Hope Blog Posts
This is the heart and soul of the web site. Here we have literally tens of thousands of posts dating back over a decade. These are listed in reverse chronological order. You can also click on any category icon to see posts tagged with that particular category.
Genius at Work
This post is intended to disabuse people of the notion that, in the financial world, popularity equals competence. This is been much on my mind lately, because for some reason I have been buried in video ads with come-ons from all kinds of hucksters pledging that their followers can basically print money if they only sign up for their expensive seminars or join their programs. These programs must pull in enough suckers to make it worthwhile to the advertiser, because the ads persist.
Long before these, though, I saw the Crypto-Genius ads. Endlessly. I haven’t been shy about rolling my eyes at James Altucher’s ads that polluted everyone’s web browsers early this year. For obvious reasons (like the 95% drop in value on many cryptos), these ads have vanished, but in case you’ve forgotten, here’s what they looked like:
The Disappearing Ghost
With the notable exception of cryptocurrencies, there has been no financial instrument I’ve enjoyed pissing in the face of more than Snap, Inc. The company, which pretends, in its own words, that it is “A Camera Company” is instead, as we all know, the maker of ONE product – – an app – – that lets you share disappearing dick pics. The firm has made a few clumsy attempts at selling hideous sunglasses that let you film your friends sneezing or scratching their nose.
When they first came public, I came out with the oh-so-clever description of the ticker as meaning Short Now And Profit (a phrase that plenty of journalists have copied since). But I was right. This thing has been a complete toilet-flush for its entire history as a public entity, and although people thought I was out of my mind to predict a single digit stock, it is already there. Firm support remains at $0.
How to Drop 35% in a Single Month
Easy! Go COMPLETELY off the rails!
Snap, Crackle, and Poop
Thanks, Evan! Now go back to your principle focus of attention, instead of building a profitable company.
Keeping Up With the Cryptoshians
The unraveling continued overnight with the market leader Bitcoin………
A Foul Musk in the Air
My Tesla short continues to thrive – – indeed, it’s my most profitable position in net cash terms – – and is not getting “torched”, as Mr. Kid-Sized Submarine promised. His girlfriend appears here to add the appropriate odor to the scene.
I’m sticking with it, tightening the stop as I go.
And It’s Still Pitch Black
No, I’m not referring to the corners of my soul. I’m speaking of the lack of light in the early morning of Palo Alto’s suburban streets. In spite of just having woken up, I am treated to the following:
(1) Equities are continuing to weaken
It’s All Miranda’s Fault
I have 57 different short positions, 52 of which are profitable at the moment and the other 5 with a miniscule loss. One of my shorts is SNAP, which is a company I’ve been pissing on, pointing at, and laughing at since they went public.
For those unacquainted with this company, they sell the disappearing dick-pic app (yeah, a real growth market there) and have clumsily tried to position themselves as “a camera company”. They have failed at basically everything they have tried, and my target price for them is $0.
I have maintained all along that if the young chap who founded this place hadn’t run off and gotten married, he might be a little less distracted. Here’s the chart, sporting a NEW LIFETIME LOW, which are my three favorite words in the English language.
Oh What a Friend We Have in G-Sus
In case there are one or two naive souls out there who don’t think the equity markets are completely controlled by the central bankers, look no farther than precious metals. They have been in a full-on bear market for seven years. Seven. YEARS. What’s the longest equities have been allowed to fall in the past few years? A week. That’s all the powers that be can take.
Incredibly, even though yesterday we were down, we’re actually red at the moment I’m typing this too. So – – maybe two days could get under our belt! Who knows. But if things are permitted to slip a little, the measured target seems to be just above 2870.
