Jenny Anderson in the New York Times on the reality that “…hedge funds are neither saviors nor Satan.”

FT Alphaville on the growing interest in emerging market-focused hedge funds.

Is Goldman Sachs (GS) “..a giant hedge fund with some consulting services attached.” (via DealBook)

Doug Cameron in the Financial Times notes the value of the CBOE is approaching $2 billion.

Shefali Anand in the Wall Street Journal finds Bill Miller is quite optimistic on the stock market.

Mark Hulbert at Marketwatch.com shows that bullish sentiment has not outrun the current rally.

Jeff Miller at A Dash of Insight has a neat graphic depicting the “gloom” surrounding the equity market of late and what that means for valuations.

Mark Whitehouse, Ann Davis and Bhushan Bahree in the Wall Street Journal on the (many) effects lower oil and gasoline prices will have on the American economy.

James Picerno at the Capital Spectator on the positive news coming from retai sales and falling oil prices.

Barry Ritholtz at the Big Picture on the effect of energy company earnings on the market as a whole.

Tom Lydon at ETF Trends on more fixed income ETFs coming to a trading screen near you.

Greg Newton at NakedShorts on the proliferation of indices.

Adam Warner at the Daily Options Report on the real risk of selling naked puts.

Unfortunately for McDonalds (MCD) shareholders, Boston Chicken is no Chipotle (CMG). (via DealBook)

Bloomberg.com columnists Ann Wolner and David Pauly weigh in on executive compensation and options backdating.

DealBook clarifies the situation with “club deals” in regards to GE’s auction of its plastics division.

Scott Rothbart at TheStreet.com on five (speculative) tie-ups we might see in 2007.

FT Alphaville on free real-time stock quotes coming to a website near you.

An interesting paper on why companies are holding more cash on their balance sheets. (via SSRN)

Thanks to all of our new readers. You can always reach us with your questions and comments.