Quote of the day

Barry Ritholtz, “If you are relying on someone else’s opinion, then you are not relying on your own research, you are not basing your analysis on data, on history, or on logic. ”  (Big Picture)

Chart of the day

An illustrated history of the U.S. credit collapse. (Global Macro Monitor via Big Picture)

Video of the day

Consuela Mack talks with Roger Lowenstein.  (Wealthtrack)

Markets

Three things you can ignore from now on.  (The Reformed Broker)

How high is the “wall of worry“?  (Pragmatic Capitalism)

How much is the Fed driving the stock market rally?  (Bloomberg)

More on the state of short-term mean-reversion.  (MarketSci Blog)

Banks are on a tear.  (VIX and More)

Ins and outs for the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100.  (Dynamic Hedge, MarketBeat)

Commodities are no longer trading in lock-step.  (WSJ)

Hedge Funds

Is the era of “cheap alpha” over?  (All About Alpha)

Why hedge funds may be a breeding ground for unethical behavior.  (HBR)

John Arnold’s hot streak looks to end in 2010.  (Institutional Investor)

Strategy and Tactics

The market is “overvalued, overbought, overbullish, [with] rising-yields.” To boot, dividend yields are too low and cyclical stocks are overvalued relative to staples. (Hussman Funds also The Source)

What lessons can we glean from 1994?  (Independent Investor)

What sectors perform best when interest rates are rising?  (Crossing Wall Street)

Is it time to take at Russia again?  (Howard Lindzon)

More on the Vietnam investment story.  (Fund My Mutual Fund)

A rare review for What Investors Really Want by Meir Statman.  (Reading the Markets)

Companies

The backlash against Netflix (NFLX) is in full swing.  (NYTimes, TRB also Hacking Netflix)

Why Verizon (VZ) needs the iPhone.  (Asymco)

Can H&R Block (HRB) be turned around?  (YCharts Blog)

Fred Wilson, “I think the assumption that tech platforms can stop growing but remain great businesses is flawed in most cases. Maybe RIM can pull it off. ”  (A VC)

Finance

More on the “secret” cabal that controls derivatives trading.  (Felix Salmon, Big Picture)

Build America Bond issuers are rushing to complete deals before year-end.  (Bloomberg also Bruce Krasting)

Taking a look at the Great Atlantic & Pacific bankruptcy.  (Distressed Debt Investing also Crossing Wall Street)

Economy

A reason for hiring optimism in 2011.  (Money Game)

Is the E-bond plan the Euro’s chance for survival?  (Gavyn Davies)

“The value of knowledge capital depends, in part, on how rare it is.”  (Michael Mandel)

Gregor Macdonald, “Perhaps America should stop trying to control the entire world, and invest in itself for a change.”  (StockTwits Macro Weekly)

Just because

If nothing else, Ron Paul as chairman of the House subcommittee on domestic monetary policy, should make for  interesting viewing.  (NYTimes)

Thanks for checking in with Abnormal Returns. For all the latest you can follow us on StockTwits and Twitter.