“History matters because we all feel the same given similar situations. And most of our actions are dictated by our feelings. Investors oscillate between a fear of losing and a fear of being left out.”  (Minyanville)

The ins and outs of high frequency trading and a HFT blog post round-up.  (WSJ, SMB Capital)

“Liquidity is certainly good for markets, but we recently learned from painful experience that it is also possible to have too much of it.”  (WashingtonPost)

On the costs of HFT to investors.  (Zero Hedge also Matthew Goldstein)

In defense of HFT.  (Scott Locklin)

Have we already seen the effects of a HFT meltdown?  (Matthew Goldstein)

Trading is unfair.  Traders need to get over it and move on.  (Abnormal Returns)

“Trading for a living is much harder than people assume: profits after expenses must be sufficient not only for you to live off of, but also to grow your account.”  (TraderFeed)

“Exchange-traded funds designed to turbo-charge index returns have been raking in money. They’re also in the penalty box.”  (WSJ)

Can the VIX really be gamed?  (VIX and More)

Blue chips are finally participating in the rally.  (NYTimes)

Investor sentiment has turned bullish once again.  (Trader’s Narrative, The Technical Take)

Ways to play the trouble mortgage market is getting crowded.  (Money & Co.)

Vanguard ETFs are cheaper than iShares and are now becoming more liquid.  (WSJ)

Why don’t fund managers lower their management fees?  (Marketwatch)

Investor risk questionnaires are getting a post-crisis make over.  (BusinessWeek)

The IRS is sniffing around college endowments.  (Barron’s)

So much for the adjustment in banking pay that was supposed to occur post-crisis.  (Real Time Economics also Clusterstock, Big Picture)

“In other words, you [Andrew Cuomo] could have provided a comprehensive study of what went wrong with executive compensation on Wall Street as well as a road map to changing it. Instead, we received only jealousy-inducing numbers.”  (DealBook also Epicurean Dealmaker)

Why “a little inflation” may help at this point in the economic cycle.  (NYTimes)

The decline in GDP is the worst since the Great Depression.  (Calculated Risk, The Atlantic)

Some reasons for cheer in the GDP report.  (Econbrowser)

Cash for clunkers was always about subsidizing vehicle purchases, and it worked.  (Free exchange also Econbrowser)

Is the global economy becoming less democratic?  (Follow the Money)

“Here’s hoping that some policy makers in Washington take it [Barry Ritholtz’s book Bailout Nation] with them on vacation this month.”   (NYTimes)

“The financial crisis may have been their [CNBC] peak moment.”  (Howard Lindzon also The Pragmatic Capitalist)

MacroTwits gets some recognition.  (Barron’s also True/Slant)

What’s worth more:  a Twitter or RSS subscriber?  (GigaOM)

Abnormal Returns is a proud member of the StockTwits Network.