Wednesday links: an artificial construction

abnormalreturns
April 20th, 2011

Quote of the day

Jared Woodard, “The spot VIX index is just a statistic. It’s an artificial construction.” (Condor Options also VIX and More)

Chart of the day

Should we be worried about a farmland bubble? (Economist)

Markets

Is the VIX high or low? (Pension Pulse, Crossing Wall Street)

How the ‘ETF-ization of everything‘ has changed the gold buying decision. (Money Game)

What lessons can we draw from the past few years of capital market performance. (the research puzzle)

Closed-end muni funds trade at a discount, but does that make them attractive? (SurlyTrader)

Strategy

On the value of sticking to your guns. (Tech Insidr contra Dynamic Hedge)

Investing is psychological warfare. (Pragmatic Capitalism)

The biggest urban legend in finance. (World Beta)

Some key principles in trading plain vanilla option spreads. (Stock Sage)

Samuel Lee, “Value hunting and dip-buying are distinct strategies.” (Morningstar)

Can Zipcar (ZIP) grow into its valuation? (Stone Street Advisors also MarketBeat)

Finance

Goldman Sachs (GS) now facing a future of diminished expectations. (Dealbook)

What if Lehman Brothers failed today? (Atlantic Business)

Putting an estimate on potential default-related muni bond losses. (FT Alphaville)

Are calls for austerity going to make the drought in muni issuance permanent? (WSJ)

ETFs

Pimco files for an ETF version of its popular Total Return Fund. (IndexUniverse)

Comparing three multi-asset ETFs. (ETFdb)

On the tax treatment of MLP exchange traded products. (IndexUniverse)

More AlphaDEX ETFs coming to market. (ETFdb)

Global

China is pushing the yuan onto the global stage. (WSJ, The Source)

Why is the Euro so strong? (Smart Money Europe, StockTwitsFX)

What determines global beer consumption? (Felix Salmon)

Economy

The flight to safety trade is a circuitous affair. (Paul Kedrosky)

How much can the Fed actually do about the economy? (Economix)

When does the market think the Fed will start tightening? (FT Alphaville)

Bill McBride, “In 2011, residential investment will make a positive contribution to the economy for the first time since 2005.” (Calculated Risk)

Earlier on Abnormal Returns

The big custodian banks have been poor relative performers of late, but State Street stands out. (AR Screencast)

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

Mixed media

The role of syndication in search-related traffic. (Felix Salmon)

Online poker players rejoice. (Kid Dynamite)

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Tickers: $GS, ZIP