Friday links: excess volatility

• abnormalreturns
• December 30th, 2011

This is for many the last linkfest of 2011.  We hope you continued to find something of value on Abnormal Returns in 2011.  Here’s hoping for better markets in 2012.  Happy New Year!

Chart of the day

2011 asset class performance.  (Reuters via @scottybarber)

Markets

2011 was a year filled with “excess volatility.”  (Big Picture)

What happens after a flat year for the S&P 500?  (MarketBeat)

The Dow is set for a golden cross.  (Focus on Funds, Bespoke)

The 10-year Treasury yield tells all.  (the research puzzle)

The platinum/gold ratio remains stuck below 1.0.  (Bespoke)

Strategy

The one skill financial planners need to learn.  (I Heart Wall Street)

Congressmen just like most individuals would be better off by not trading so much.  (WSJ, Clusterstock)

How to use tax-advantaged savings vehicles.  (The Atlantic)

Podcast with Joe Terranova talking about his new book Buy High, Sell Higher.  (Martin Kronicle)

Companies

Which stock would you rather own:  McDonalds ($MCD) or Apple ($AAPL)?  (Deal Journal)

Ten things we learned about about Apple in 2011.  (SplatF)

Hubris and the fall of Sears Holdings ($SHLD).  (NYTimes)

Why Mark Hurd, former CEO of Hewlett-Packard ($HPQ) had to go.  (SAI)

The worst footnote of 2011 goes to… (footnoted)

Finance

Another flash crash is still a real possibility.  (FT, Felix Salmon)

Why is Gap ($GPS) spending so much on share buybacks?  (YCharts Blog)

A raft of stock options issued at the depths of the financial crisis are now in the money.  (NYTimes)

ETFs

Carl Icahn’s clone portfolio did alright in 2011.  (AlphaClone)

How about a short-term junk bond ETF?  (IndexUniverse)

Economy

What really caused the recession?  (Pragmatic Capitalism)

Restaurant performance and rail traffic point toward more economic growth.  (Calculated Risk, Pragmatic Capitalism)

The case for cautious optimism about the economy in 2012.  (Capital Spectator)

The investment drought continues.  (Mandel on Innovation)

Have we mis-estimated the economy’s potential output?  (Sober Look)

Earlier on Abnormal Returns

What you missed in our Friday morning linkfest.  (Abnormal Returns)

Mixed media

The “Biz Journalist of the Year” for 2011 is….  (Talking Biz News)

In 2011 I learned that… (The Reformed Broker)

In defense of Top 10 lists.  (NYTimes)

More of the best economics books of 2011 including Emanuel Derman’s Models.Behaving.Badly.  (Capital Spectator)

Inc.’s top ten essential economics blogs.  (Inc. via Big Picture)

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