Quote of the day

Michael Santoli, “The stock market capitalizes not the absolute level of strength in the domestic economy, nor the mood of the median household, but rather a private profit stream of mostly large, substantially global companies.”  (Barron’s)

Chart of the day

The 2011 Bespoke Roundtable is up.  (Bespoke also EconomPic Data)

Markets

Equity sentiment at week-end.  (Trader’s Narrative)

What sector rotation tells us about recent market movements.  (Dragonfly Capital)

The VIX futures curve is wicked steep.  (SurlyTrader)

Speaking of steep, check out the Treasury curve.  (Bloomberg)

Oil prices have reached a post-recession high.  (Calafia Beach Pundit)

Real Estate

Brookfield Properties (BPO) is firmly ensconced in the “the A-list of United States real estate investors.” (NYTimes)

“It appears 2010 was the low point for multifamily construction, and activity will pick up in 2011.”  (Calculated Risk)

Don’t look now but homebuilding stocks are perking up.  (StockCharts)

Strategy and Tactics

Time to get long munis for a trade around year-end?  (World Beta)

What is a manager’s “active share” and how can it be used for manager selection?  (WSJ, Aleph Blog)

Jeff Vinik is apparently a big fan of ETFs.  (ETF Replay)

Low implied volatilities may mean calls are the way to play a potential equity rally in 2011.  (Barron’s)

How many observations are enough to test a set-up?  (Quantifiable Edges)

Companies

Companies are once again buying back stock while insiders keep selling.  (Real Time Economics, WSJ)

How big an earnings hit are banks going to take if card interchange fees are capped?  (FT Alphaville)

Yahoo! (YHOO) is in “absolute disarray.”  (TechCrunch, ibid)

Finance

Exchange traded products pass the $1 trillion in assets under management mark.  (WSJ, Barron’s)

Barry Ritholtz, “the GSEs have become a backdoor bailout for failed bank policies.”  (Big Picture)

An update on how much Madoff investors might eventually recover.  (Curious Capitalist)

Economy

The Taylor Rule implies a rise in the Fed Funds rate in 2011.  (Economics One also LATimes)

What’s behind the rise in interest rates?  (macroblog)

Official trade stats are at best misleading. (Ultimi Barbarorum)

Time to re-think the charity tax deduction?  (NYTimes, Economist’s View)

Lessons from Iceland for Ireland.  (Economist)

A positive review for What Investors Really Want by Meir Statman.  (Aleph Blog)

Just because

Roger Ebert’s top feature films for 2010.  (Chicago Sun-Times)

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