Monday means two things. The Ticker Sense Blogger Sentiment Poll shows nearly 50% of bloggers are bearish on the stock market for the next 30 days. In addition, the Carnival of Investing (#35) is up over at Journal to Financial Freedom.

It seems that an article by Ian Salisbury in the Wall Street Journal on the introduction of two new preferred stock ETF trackers has caught the attention of Tom Lydon at ETF Trends, and Random Roger who both comment on the story. Although we have been self-identified as an “ETF skeptic” we think this sort of vehicle, if well-constructed, is a useful addition to the ETF world.

There was also a number of comments on an options-related piece by Mark Hulbert in the New York Times.

The Unknown Professor believes the underlying article is “a very nice piece” worth reading.

Greg Newton at NakedShorts notes the (probably) short-lived value of the database tapped for the study.

Adam Warner at the Daily Options Report weighs in as well and makes a number of (astute) observations on the study including the difficulty in actually replicating the returns from the study, in practice.

While the large caps continue their recent outperformance, Barry Ritholtz walks amongst the bears.

Katie Benner at TheStreet.com looks at investor’s changing view on what constitutes a “core” international equity fund.

Going Private thoughtfully weighs in on a story that bridges the worlds of commodities and private equity.

Adam Lashinsky at Fortune notes signs of a top in, and cyclical nature of, the private equity industry.

Still on private equity, DealBook highlights a contrary piece on private equity noting the long holding periods for many of their investments.

Brett Steenbarger at TraderFeed somehow was able to cull ten useful life lessons from trading the markets.

It is not often that we look forward to old age, but given our curmudgeonly nature we have this to look forward to. (via Reason.com)

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