Bespoke Investment Group on the value of Sotheby’s (BID) as a market tell, as opposed to a proxy for the fine art market.

Are Chinese stocks 65% overvalued? (via Crossing Wall Street)

Decided neutrality in the Ticker Sense Blogger Sentiment Poll.

Brett Steenbarger at TraderFeed on the breakout in money flow amidst this bull market.

From Trader Daily’s “Top Trading City” the battle for the Chicago Board of Trade (BOT) heats up.

DealBook and Breakingviews.com on the deal potential of (Chicago-based) optionsXpress (OXPS).

James Picerno at the Capital Spectator with a “timely review” of the ins-and-outs of portfolio rebalancing.

David Gaffen at MarketBeat on whether we are entering a new, more volatile, market phase.

IndexUniverse.com on the increased emphasis ETF firms are putting on marketing and wholesaling.

Simon Kennedy at Marketwatch.com on a growing cadre of hedge fund activists targeting European companies.

DealBook with an interesting behind-the-scenes look at takeover talks and SPACs.

Is a mutual fund focused on publicly traded private equity firms a sound idea? (via TheStreet.com)

Speaking of publicly traded private equity, Controlled Greed points to an interesting annual report and shareholder letter.

Carol Hymowitz at WSJ.com on why corporate CEOs look to private equity firms for a change of pace.

Barry Ritholtz at the Big Picture on “Cramer Fatigue.”

Jim Cramer at New York magazine thinks Murdoch will eventually buy Dow Jones (DJ) which now seems more likely that GE/Microsoft are unwilling to make a bid. See also FT Alphaville and DealBook on the lack of competing bids.

Dawn C. Chmielewski and Michelle Quinn in the Los Angeles Times on the studio’s new found fear of Apple’s AppleTV project that may soon include movie rentals.

News flash! Stephen A. Schwarzman of the soon-to-be public Blackstone Group makes a great deal of money. (via WSJ.com)

CXO Advisory Group on why net-of-fees most investors should stick to low costs, indexed portfolios.

James M. Clash at Forbes.com on the uses of leveraged, inverse ETFs.

Too many Sopranos finale posts to sort through, although we did think one by James Poniewozik at Time.com was quite good.

For those e-mail inclined you can stay up-to-date with all Abnormal Returns posts.