Quote of the day

Jesse Eisinger, “[QE2] It’s like the exhausted “Saw” movie franchise; this isn’t just a sequel. It’s more like the third iteration of the second reboot — harder core, baser and for serious liquidity heads only.” (ProPublica)

Markets

The market is overbought, but still intact.  (Trader’s Narrative)

Market breadth comes in ever so slightly.  (Bespoke)

Bullish sentiment is soaring.  (Pragmatic Capitalism)

The Treasury curve keeps steepening.  (FT Alphaville, WSJ, SurlyTrader, EconomPic Data)

Just how well has the “new normal” described capital market returns?  (Insider Monkey)

Norway’s sovereign wealth fund is backing away from junk bonds.  (Bloomberg)

An early look at Thanksgiving week performance.  (MarketSci Blog)

What if the stock market were a bond?  (Crossing Wall Street)

Where is the dispersion in hedge fund returns?  (All About Alpha)

A closer look at the performance of Norway’s stock market.  (Globe and Mail)

Caution on the commodity boom.  (The Source)

On the absurdity of pricing everything in gold.  (Big Picture)

Strategy and Tactics

Jeremy Grantham, “Cash has a virtue that people don’t appreciate fully, and that is its ‘optionality'”  (CNBC also Bloomberg)

Tom Brakke, “While size can definitely have its advantages, we often get lulled into ignoring the accompanying risks. ”  (the research puzzle)

Investors are lining up to exit Harbinger Capital.  (Bloomberg, WSJ, Dealbreaker, Deal Journal, FINalternatives, Clusterstock)

The ultra-rich are jumping back into hedge funds.  (Wealth Report)

A review of Quint Tatro’s Trade the Trader.  (SMB Training)

On the value of avoiding ‘lottery ticket stocks.’  (Falkenblog)

A webchat with Mebane Faber.  (Kirk Report)

24 reasons TO day trade from Timothy Sykes.  (Trader’s Library)

ETFs

People are lining up to take on the results of the controversial Kauffman report on ETFs.  (Morningstar, IndexUniverse, Random Roger)

Investors love them the exotic ETFs.  (Reuters)

A natural ETF experiment:  Flash Crash vs. financial crisis.  (Abnormal Returns)

On our love-hate relationship with ETFs.  (Josh Brown)

How are actively managed ETFs going to deal with transparency requirements?  (ETF Trends)

Approach ETFs with caution these days.  (Options for Rookies)

The expanding world of VIX ETNs.  (VIX and More)

Companies

Maybe Cisco (CSCO) hasn’t turned things around just yet.  (Bloomberg, FT Alphaville, 24/7 Wall St., Charts and Coffee, Bespoke also Mish)

Amazon (AMZN) should starting using its pricey stock for acquisitions.  (YCharts Blog)

Is Apple (AAPL) making the same mistakes again, this time with phones?  (Credit Writedowns)

How Anheuser Busch (BUD) went by the wayside and St. Louis discovers the joys of microbrews.  (Tech Ticker, Bloomberg)

Steven Rattner on the GM IPO:  “there’s only upside in the stock.”  (Tech Ticker)

Which CEOs have created the most ‘economic value’ for shareholders?  (Value Expectations)

The forced-place insurance scandal picks up another victim, investors.  (Big Picture, Felix Salmon, Aleph Blog)

Economy

Gold is not a useful signal to G-20 policymakers.  (Gavyn Davies)

Rail traffic is muddling along.  (ValuePlays)

A new way to track inflation.  (Big Picture)

What are the chances that farm subsidies get rolled back? Slim.  (Points and Figures)

Emerging economies continue to grow as a percent of world GDP.  (EconomPic Data)

The (peripheral) Euro debt crisis re-accelerates.  (WSJ, Money Game, MarketBeat)

Social media and markets

The ways in which social media is changing markets.  (Dragonfly Capital)

Why social media is preferable to business television:  curation.  (MindfulMoney)

Lou Dobbs to join Fox Business.  (Bloomberg)

Is Facebook going to kill the SMS business?  (GigaOM)

Just because

Jonah Lehrer, “Why does the microwave and frozen dinner inexorably lead to obesity?”  (The Frontal Cortex)

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