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Quote of the day

Bob Lefsetz, “Today life is rough. There are winners and losers. The middle class is shrinking. Which is why all those with a brain want to ensure they don’t end up on the wrong side of the divide.” (The Lefsetz Letter)

Chart of the day

Why investors should take note of the growing spread between the 1 and 2 year Treasuries. (Crossing Wall Street)

Markets

Corporations remain as the last net buyer of stocks.  (The Reformed Broker)

Short sales have collapsed around the globe.  (FT)

What valuation measures say about the analyst.  (Barry Ritholtz)

Commodities

The case for a move up in commodities (and gold).  (Market Anthropology)

Hedge funds are piling into gold and silver futures.  (Short Side of Long)

Money once again is flowing into commodity ETFs.  (FT)

Strategy

Are retail investors all that optimistic?  (Minyanville)

How good a trader do you need to be to beat buy-and-hold?  (Irrelevant Investor)

What works in picking consumer staples stocks?  (Millenial Invest)

On the difference between analysts and portfolio managers.  (Enterprising Investor)

Great resources for continuing trading education.  (TraderFeed)

Companies

Ben Thompson, “In fact, it turns out that smartphones really are just like PCs: it’s the hardware maker with its own operating system that is dominating profits, while everyone else eats themselves alive to the benefit of their software master.”  (stratechery)

Can Instagram become a money maker for Facebook ($FB)?  (Fortune)

Pretty soon all car insurance companies are going to require persistent tracking.  (Quartz)

Finance

Companies are swapping share buybacks for M&A.  (Mark Hulbert)

Inversions have a high cost for taxable shareholders.  (Dealbook)

ETFs

Why low-vol is not that great a strategy in low volatility regimes.  (John Authers)

Bond funds are the bond market. What happens when it comes time to sell?  (Businessweek)

Beware high dividend ETFs.  (Larry Swedroe)

Global

Emerging markets can make fast moves down (and up).  (A Wealth of Common Sense)

Breaking down the differences among China ETFs.  (ETF)

Economy

Three reasons why a replay of the economy of the 1970s is unlikely.  (Pragmatic Capitalism)

A sign that higher wage growth may be down the road.  (Real Time Economics)

Earlier on Abnormal Returns

What you might have missed in our Tuesday linkfest.  (Abnormal Returns)

Mixed media

Undergraduate business education is booming.  (Fortune)

To take back your time you should start saying ‘No’ more often.  (Farnam Street)

Patti Waldmeir, “Today’s parents are far less willing to spend nothing to teach their children nothing in the dog days.”  (FT)

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