Quote of the day

“The stock market is a game of mistakes. You make them, you pay for them, you learn from them, and you try not to make them again.”  (Market Folly)

Markets

Four conditions that indicate the stock market should be higher.  (Trader’s Narrative)

Why aren’t gold market timers more bullish?  (Marketwatch)

It doesn’t take much to spark a rally in an oversold market.  The case of the US dollar.  (AR Screencast)

Markets hate uncertainty.  The case of Bank of America (BAC).  (Felix Salmon)

Chinese stocks have experienced a textbook breakout.  (Barron’s)

China still hearts US Treasuries.  (EconomPic Data)

Wal-Mart (WMT) borrows at record low rates.  (Bloomberg)

Why are physical producers interested in backing physical metal ETFs.  (FT Alphaville also Jim Jubak)

Where are the equity fund inflows?  (FT Alphaville)

How many more mini-Flash Crashes can the market handle?  (Points and Figures)

The investors who have a big stake in the reflation trade.  (The Reformed Broker, NetNet)

Strategy and Tactics

Why increased granularity can help in building timing models.  (World Beta)

Trading isn’t just about what to buy and when, but also “how much.”  (StockTwitsU)

Why using active managers complicates the asset allocation process.  (Capital Spectator)

Why individuals don’t take advantage of the insurance-like aspects of options.  (Options for Rookies)

How to play earnings season on a stock-by-stock basis.  (Barron’s)

Even if you could, “why would you want to invest like Harvard“?  (Bucks Blog)

Companies

Is JC Penney (JCP) acting on the behalf of themselves or shareholders?  (ValuePlays)

Talk about doubling down…Harrah’s Entertainment is coming back public.  (WSJ, Dealbook, Distressed Debt Investing, Street Sweep)

Wall Street

Citigroup (C) still has a lot of work to do and the Feds keep selling shares.  (YCharts Blog, Street Sweep)

A slump in trading revenues hits Goldman Sachs (GS) where it hurts..the pocketbook.  (Street Sweep, ibid)

Foreclosure-gate

A call for sanity on foreclosure-gate.  (HousingWire)

Citibank, Bank of America and GMAC have resumed some foreclosures.  (Calculated Risk, ibid WashingtonPost, WSJ)

If “the first rule of mortgage lending is you don’t foreclose” why are we having so many of them?  (Rortybomb)

The two parts of the mortgage mess.  (Atlantic Business)

Technology or (Apple News)

Philip Elmer-DeWitt, “Fully 60% of Apple’s (AAPL) quarterly sales now come from two products — the iPhone and the iPad — that didn’t exist three years ago.”  (Apple 2.0)

Apple (AAPL) is on its way to become the world’s largest company by market cap.  (Lex also 24/7 Wall St.)

Steve Jobs vs. Google (GOOG).  (WashingtonPost, Apple 2.0)

Apple plans to keep its “powder dry.”  (Bloomberg, Asymco)

Global Economy

How might QE2 affect the rest of the world?  (Free exchange)

China raises interest rates.  (WSJ, FT Alphaville, Bloomberg, Points and Figures)

The PBoC has been “behind the curve on interest rates.”  (China Financial Markets also Credit Writedowns)

Brazil still wants your capital, just on their terms.  (Money Game also FT Alphaville)

Mind and Markets

How to tell when a CEO is lying.  (peHUB)

How being “a little miserable” can improve creativity.  (The Frontal Cortex)

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