Thursday links: free money game

• abnormalreturns
• October 21st, 2010

Quote of the day

Josh Brown, “The free money game for the banks has been a holocaust for savers and the elderly.  It’s also been the most despicable corporate giveaway in American History.” (The Reformed Broker)

Chart of the day

Gold is still underowned by historical standards.  (Infectious Greed)

Markets

The current stock market rally is “innocent until proven guilty”.  (AlphaTrends)

Bullish sentiment is pushing 50%.  (Bespoke also Investing With Options)

Some notable market divergences.  (Attitrade, Trader’s Narrative)

A narrow market is a dangerous market.  (Pragmatic Capitalism)

Caterpillar (CAT) and UPS (UPS) are good examples of what is going on in the current stock market.  (Fund My Mutual Fund, DailyFinance)

Hedge funds are long the Swiss franc and oil.  (Market Folly)

These stock market models forecast dismal returns going forward.  (World Beta)

You are welcome Canada.  The VIX hops the border.  (InvestorPlace)

How a value investor views gold.  (Street Capitalist)

Strategy and Tactics

There is no single perfect investment strategy.  (A Dash of Insight)

About that whole Twitter as predictor of the stock market idea. (ETF Central via pkedrosky)

On the need (and challenges) of separating yourself from the market.  (StockTwitsU)

Just what are “absolute returns“?  (All About Alpha)

ETFs

How inclusion in an ETF changes a stock’s correlation with the market.  (Fundometry via Felix Salmon)

No matter how you slice it the Powershares QQQ Trust (QQQQ) is one messed up index.  (IndexUniverse)

Why you should hate the VXX.  (SurlyTrader)

A new ETF, the ETFS Precious Metals Basket will hold a blend of precious metals.  (WSJ)

Wall Street

Quite a trade.  Goldman’s proprietary trading desk moves to KKR (KKR).  (Dealbook, Bloomberg)

Evan Newmark, “By now, it’s almost embarrassing to keep comparing Morgan to its richer, roguish downtown rival: Goldman Sachs.”  (Deal Journal also Breakingviews)

Goldman Sachs (GS) should buy back Warren Buffett’s big IOU.  (Reuters also WSJ, MarketBeat)

Somebody is betting in the options market that Bank of America (BAC) has a lot farther to fall.  (Barron’s)

Do muni bond ratings accurately reflect the cost of state worker pension and health care costs?  Um, no.  (WSJ)

Larry Fink’s “worst trade.”  (Dealbreaker)

Foreclosure-gate

Should foreclosure-gate initiate a new round of bank stress tests?  (Baseline Scenario also Calculated Risk)

Three potential outcomes for the mortgage mess.  (Ezra Klein)

Economy

A short primer on why quantitative easing or “credit easing” might work, but most likely won’t.  (Slate)

Are businesses already preparing for future inflation?  (ContraHour, Market Talk)

More on the ongoing experiment in austerity in Britain.  (WashingtonPost)

China is facing higher inflation and decelerating growth.  (EconomPic Data, FT Alphaville, Lex)

Energy costs remain a long-term headwind for the global economy.  (Economist)

Technology

Apple (AAPL) is now taking design cues for its computers from its mobile devices.  (NYTimes, Daring Fireball, Fast Company)

Is the US facing a wireless spectrum “traffic jam”?  (Atlantic Technology)

Just Because

Steve Randy Waldman, “A good community is a community in which Karma obtains.”  (Interfluidity)

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Tickers: $AAPL, $GS, $VIX, CAT, KKR, MS, QQQQ, UPS, VXX

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