‘Tis the season. Every day more Americans are cutting the cord on cable. The Wirecutter recommends the Roku 3 and the Apple TV as the best streaming media boxes.

 

Quote of the day

Daniel Gross, “It’s been a bad week or so for the economic catastrophists.”  (The Daily Beast)

Chart of the day

AIEA_1213

Americans are increasing their allocation to equities: what it means for future returns.  (Philosophical Economics)

Markets

What’s wrong with REITs?  (Jason Zweig also Marketwatch)

Why the market continues to surprise people.  (Dynamic Hedge)

A shopping list of closed-end funds trading at a discount.  (Barron’s)

How the market trades around Christmas.  (Quantifiable Edges)

A pictorial look back the year in markets.  (A Dash of Insight)

Charts

Gold miners are sitting at support.  (The Short Side of Long)

3.75% is not an unreasonable projection for the 10 year note.  (John Murphy)

Consumer discretionary stocks continue to outpeform.  (StockCharts Blog)

Strategy

Most of investing is sitting on your hands.  (Morgan Housel)

Rethinking income in retirement.  (Rekenthaler Report, WSJ)

Why we are so easily lured by the “possibility of outperformance.”  (Canadian Couch Potato via @monevator)

Seven lessons you should have learned from 2013 but likely didn’t.  (Marketwatch)

In you case you missed it the first time check out this dot-com version of Monopoly.  (Quartz)

Finance

How Wall Street came to “centralize the business of renting single-family homes in the US.”  (Bloomberg)

Apparently Julian Robertson can pick hedge fund managers as well.  (Dealbook)

Not many hedge fund managers can ask (and receive) a bank loan.  (Bloomberg)

Global

Low vol emerging market funds outperformed in 2013.  (Focus on Funds)

European soccer is a horrible business.  (Quartz)

On Chinese market seasonality.  (ETF Trends)

Economy

A look back at the week in economic statistics.  (Bonddad Blog)

The economic schedule for the coming week.  (Calculated Risk, Turnkey Analyst)

Farmland prices have started ticking down.  (Climateer Investing)

Another look at the labor participation rate.  (Sober Look)

Earlier on Abnormal Returns

Top clicks this week on the site.  (Abnormal Returns)

On the sudden popularity of investment checklists.  (Abnormal Returns)

Two blog heavyweights weight in on the “death of the blog.”  (Abnormal Returns)

What you may have missed in our Saturday linkfest.  (Abnormal Returns)

Mixed media

One reporter’s story of getting sucked into the reality distortion field that is Washington D.C.  (Politico)

On the forthcoming backlash against the technology elite.  (TechCrunch)

How to sell anything.  (James Altucher)

What Bitcoin backers get wrong.  (Alex Payne, Daily Ticker)

Don’t overthink your gift giving.  (Priceonomics Blog)

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