Quote of the day

Surly, “I feel like market participants have reached that level of anxiety and impatience.  We know that things are bad, but we just want the market to tell us how bad they are.”  (SurlyTrader)

Chart of the day

Silver volatility has been insane of late.  (Stock Sage)

Markets

You want volatility?  Head to Germany.  (Bespoke)

The evolution of S&P 500 consensus earning estimates.  (Dr. Ed’s Blog, Crossing Wall Street)

A peek at historical October seasonality.  (MarketSci Blog)

Still waiting for a mea culpa from Meredith Whitney.  (Gary Kaminsky)

Commodity equities do not like US dollar strength.  (Minyanville)

Strategy

Broken charts put pressure on managers of all stripes.  (the research puzzle)

How zero interest rates affect diversification decisions.  (CSS Analytics)

How market crashes imprint themselves on traders.  (Investing With Options)

Mean reversion trades require a discipline most traders don’t have.  (Ivanhoff Capital)

What’s the “elevator pitch” for companies you are investing in?  (Trend Rida)

Companies

Apple ($AAPL) is working to disintermediate Google ($GOOG) in mobile search.  (SplatF)

There was a better way to do a Berkshire Hathaway ($BRKB) buyback.  (Aleph Blog, Peridot Capitalist)

The biggest risk to the Groupon business model.  (Felix Salmon also footnoted)

Finance

Hooray for small, young hedge funds.  (FINalternatives)

Do we need another muni bond insurer?  (WSJ)

Corporate pension funds have long served as a piggybank for companies.  (Pension Pulse)

SecondMarket lists itself on the exchange that “probably should not exist.”  (Dealbook)

In defense of an asset-based investment management fee.  (Downtown Josh Brown)

ETFs

Fracking is hot.  Hence the proposed ETF.  (WSJ, IndexUniverse)

On the relative tax efficiency of various ETFs.  (IndexUniverse)

Say hello to some high yielding ETNs.  (ETFdb)

Global

Where to go in a world filled with high correlations?  (FT Tilt)

Tough times for commodity currencies. (The Source)

Even dim sum bonds are getting hurt.  (WSJ)

Europe

The correlations between Euro bonds and equities are at a 40-year high.  (Zero Hedge)

Are contingent convertibles the solution to the Euro banking crisis?  (WSJ)

There is no “magic bullet” to fix Europe, rather a whole menu of options.  (A Dash of Insight)

A simple step to solve the Euro crisis.  (Marginal Revolution)

A Euro crisis calendar.  (The Source)

Economy

What will it take to spur the Fed to bring out the big guns?  (Economist’s View)

Inflation expectations continue to decline.  (Capital Spectator)

GDI vs. GDP:  a tale of the tape.  (FT Alphaville)

Temp staffing levels are at their high for the year.  (ValuePlays)

The unsteady state of the housing market.  (Calculated Risk, Atlantic Business)

Family health premiums now rival that of a new car.  (Politico)

Earlier on Abnormal Returns

A guest post from Michael Martin on finding your own “inner trading voice.”  (Abnormal Returns)

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

Mixed media

Setting realistic goals and the line between “thinking big and contentment.”  (Bucks Blog)

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