Instead of a full-blow linkfest today we just wanted to note some posts from some of favorite bloggers that touch on themes we have mentioned in the past few months.  We will get back to our normally scheduled programming in due course.  In no particular order.

Heidi Moore writing a the Street Sweep blog notes how commodities have “jumped the shark” of late.  Gold aside, prices are down and assets under management have shrunk.  She writes:

The commodities bull run was a beautiful thing. But investors have to wonder whether the best trades have already been done.

See our earlier post on  what the popularity of commodities index investing hath wrought or the: “financialization of commodities.”

Jeffrey Carter at Points and Figures talks about the idea “long haul investing.”  Carter an experienced traders notes how high frequency traders have taken over much of the market landscape making it difficult for individuals to compete.  He writes:

You will lose money if you try to trade this market day to day. No one can anticipate the wild swings. Trading sounds sexy. Some traders do make a lot of money. But the days of the guys on trading floors earning a huge buck are over. …This is why you cannot trade and win anymore. Only way to win is position trade over periods of time.

Long haul investing isn’t dead. It’s actually the best strategy for attacking the current market conditions. Especially for the average investor.

In an earlier piece on the forthcoming golden age of stock picking we noted that investors need to “play an entirely different game” than the computers.  Thankfully individuals do have some advantages over institutions.

We have avoided the debate over the Kartik Athreya piece on the challenge of economics and the blogosphere.  However David Merkel at the Aleph Blog ties the discussion back to the nature of the econoblogosphere itself.  He asks what drives the relative success of economics/finance bloggers?

Tough question.  Being an engaging writer helps in the intermediate-run, and being a scandalmonger helps in the short-run.  In the long-run, all that matters is that the writer is right frequently, makes sense to readers, and has the humility to admit errors.  The economics and finance blogosphere is highly competitive, and talent tends to prevail over long periods of time.  Blogging is more of a meritocracy than peer-reviewed journals.  It more closely resembles “perfect competition.”

Part of what drives success in the econoblogosphere is specialization.  In an earlier post we noted how in an increasingly complex world specialized knowledge and the ability to blog about it an increasingly valuable skill.

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