Quote of the day

Michael Santoli, “(T)he true advances for small investors have come in free or cheaper investment information, tax-efficient exchange-traded funds and ultra-low trading costs – not real-time performance advantages.” (Unexpected Returns)

Chart of the day

REM Total Return Price data by YCharts

Regulators are worried about the systemic risk in mortgage REITs.  (WSJ)

Markets

The bull case for bonds: just look around the world.  (Money Game)

Can the market form a major top without a big jump in investor optimism?  (chessNwine)

The mixed sentiment picture.  (The Short Side of Long)

Market breadth is shrinking.  (Bespoke)

Check out what has been going on with TIPS yields.  (FT Alphaville)

AAA munis vs. CDs.  (LearnBonds)

Strategy

Humility is a rare commodity amongst investors.  (Alpha Capture also Above the Market)

Using put spreads to hedge your portfolio.  (Barron’s)

Investors can’t use models without some understanding of them.  (the research puzzle)

Companies

The bear case for JC Penney ($JCP).  (SumZero)

Technology now has its own ‘rust belt.’  (WSJ)

Can Apple ($AAPL) maintain its fat profit margins?  (The Brooklyn Investor contra SAI)

It’s not longer easy being an Apple bull.  (NYTimes)

Microsoft ($MSFT) goes to the bait-and-switch playbook.  (footnoted)

Finance

The CLO business has come back from the dead.  (NYTimes)

IPO investors don’t seem to bothered by leverage these days.  (WSJ also FT)

Rob Arnott has had it with hedge funds.  (Term Sheet)

Breaking into the hedge fund game has become more difficult.  (Economist)

ETFs

iShares launches three new factor ETFs with the help of the Arizona pension fund.  (IndexUniverse)

iShares also launches new target date corporate bond ETFs.  (IndexUniverse also Abnormal Returns)

Global

Canadians are now more affluent than Americans.  (Real Time Economics)

Gold is many thing to many people.  (Floyd Norris)

Euro stocks have led this leg lower.  (Buttonwood)

Economy

A quick check in on Fed Funds futures.  (Avondale Asset)

Rail traffic is trending lower.  (Pragmatic Capitalism)

Is it possible to come up with better ‘real time‘ economic indicators?  (voxEU)

What has remained of Reinhart-Rogoff?  (Gavyn Davies)

Mixed media

The risk of getting in on Kickstarter projects: you get nothing.  (Felix Salmon)

Why social scientists are reluctant to share data.  (The Daily Beast)

A look the discovery of two very Earth-like planets.  (Slate)

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