Quote of the day

Eric Falkenstein, “The economy is a complex, nonlinear, adaptive system where short run effects are often opposite of long run effects.”  (Falkenblog)

Tweet of the day

“We systematically overestimate the value of access to information and underestimate the value of access to each other.” ( @cshirky via @infoarbitrage)

Chart of the day

What the downside of a parabolic market move looks like.  (Market Anthropology also Pragmatic Capitalism)

Markets

With volatility lower, the “phantom volume” from high frequency trading has decreased.  (WSJ, ibid)

If you ‘sell in May‘ stick the money in Treasury bonds.  (CXO Advisory Group)

Emerging markets are feeling the pinch of higher inflation (and interest rates).  (beyondbrics, Bonddad Blog)

Dr. Copper just gave up.  (Global Macro Monitor)

The Glencore top in commodities.  (FT Alphaville, Money Game)

How leverage (and derivatives) affect markets.  (Deus ex Macchiato)

Strategy

The best cure for volatility is patience.  (Crossing Wall Street)

David Merkel, “Until you lose a decent amount, you don’t really understand how the market works.”  (Aleph Blog)

Another example of how patient investors outperform their twitchier comrades.  (Morningstar)

Clients want answers to questions that have no answers.  (the research puzzle)

Trading

Why risk management matters.  It prevents you from your own stupidity.  (The Reformed Broker)

A simple investment checklist.  (Bigger Capital)

Trading the headlines can distract you from your plan.  (The Minimalist Trader)

Finance

Glencore can do stuff Goldman Sachs (GS) can’t.  (Bloomberg)

The action in IPO land is heating up.  (FT Alphaville)

Ralcorp (RAH) will not go easily into the night.  (Dealbook, WSJ)

Why would somebody want Warren Buffet’s job?  (SmartMoney)

Technology

Amazon (AMZN) has the currency for acquisitions.  Who should they buy?  (Deal Journal also Climateer Investing)

Does Intel (INTC) have the chipset to break into the tablet market?  (TechInsidr, WSJ)

On the unique economics of Groupon.  (Felix Salmon)

Skype has some suitors.  (Reuters)

Funds

The May ETF Deathwatch is here.  (Invest With An Edge)

Things just keep getting weirder at the United States Natural Gas Fund (UNG).  (FT Alphaville)

PowerShares launches low volatility and high beta ETFs.  (IndexUniverse)

Currencies

Detailing the profitability of currency momentum.  (SSRN via CXOAG)

One hope for the US dollar – a turn in commodities.  (The Source)

A majority government lends to the attraction of the Canadian dollar.  (Bloomberg)

Economy

Initial unemployment claims are jumping once again.  (Calculated RiskWSJ, Bespoke, Capital Spectator, Stone Street, Calafia Beach Pundit, Political Calculations)

Daniel Gross, “It’s a good time to be a corporation.”  (Yahoo! Finance)

Where did all the positive economic surprises go?  (FT Alphaville)

Has construction employment bottomed out?  (Calculated Risk)

Is the slow employment recovery due to offshoring?  (macroblog)

The Patent Office is broken.  Time for a fix.  (Economist)

Looking down the road at potential Chinese growth.  (beyondbrics)

Earlier on Abnormal Returns

Most of the time, like now, the market indicators send out mixed messages.  (AR Screencast)

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

Mixed media

Why does the confirmation bias exist?  (The Frontal Cortex)

Adapt:  Why Success Starts with Failure by Tim Harford sounds interesting.  (Farnam Street)

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