Quote of the day

Eric Falkenstein, ” We are nicer, better, less short-sighted, when we have to compete.”  (Falkenblog)

Chart of the day

The impressive rally in German (and European) stocks year-to-date.  (Pragmatic Capitalism)

Markets

The great big global stock-bond disconnect.  (Money Game)

The great equity market valuation debate.  (Dr. Ed’s Blog, Fortune)

The least volatile stocks over the past decade.  (Bespoke)

The new gold rush:  farmers are set to plan record acreage this Spring.  (Bloomberg)

The Brent-WTI spread is blowing out again.  (Sober Look)

Strategy

Dividend investors should focus on companies with that can increase their dividends.  (Marketblog, Big Picture)

Equities don’t do that great in periods of HIGH inflation.  (The Source)

What happens when everyone starts using risk parity strategies?  (Aleph Blog)

Why your trading strategy needs to fit your lifestyle:  the case of geography.  (VIX and More)

Conserving financial willpower:  the power of automation.  (Bucks Blog)

Companies

Does an Amazon ($AMZN) retail store presence make sense?  (SplatF, Big Picture)

Just in case you needed a reminder, apparel retailing is a fickle business.  (research puzzle pix)

Hollywood by the numbers.  (Asymco)

You don’t see CEOs “giving up” $100 million these days.  (WSJ, footnoted)

Facebook

At least Facebook is going a good job with their financial disclosures.  (Grumpy Old Accountants)

Just who counts as an “active user” on Facebook?  (Dealbook)

The rise of the fresh, young CEO:  enthusiasm vs. experience.  (WSJ)

Finance

Can the money market mutual fund industry withstand proposed, new SEC rules?  (WSJ, MarketBeat, Felix Salmon)

Are credit ratings massively overvalued?  (Economics Intelligence)

Keep an eye on the repo markets.  (Finance Addict)

The picture at MF Global is slowly emerging.  (FT Alphaville)

Banks are accelerating the process of getting bum mortgages off their books.  (Bloomberg, Felix Salmon)

ETFs

A cheat sheet for all the alternative-weighting schemes.  (ETFdb)

ETF stats for January 2012.  (Invest With An Edge)

Global

Looking forward to the second tranche of the LTRO.  (Sober Look)

Some Euro banks have passed on using the ECB’s LTRO program.  (WSJ)

Jerome Booth, “Not investing significantly in emerging markets is a form of gambling.”  (FT)

Economy

Now is the time for jobs growth to accelerate.  (Bonddad Blog)

The optimistic economic case from a notable pessimist.  (Planet Money)

Why the Fed is saying no Fed funds rate hikes until 2014.  (Free exchange)

On the relationship between policy uncertainty and growth.  (voxEU)

Earlier on Abnormal Returns

Download the Credit Suisse Global Investment Returns Yearbook 2012 and thank me later.  (Abnormal Returns)

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

Mixed media

Letters to a young analyst.  (Tom Brakke)

Earning estimate resource Estimize profiled.  (IBD)

A podcast with Betterment CEO Jon Stein on the importance of making investing less complicated.  (Tradestreaming)

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