Quote of the day
“Sri Lanka’s stock market gained the most at 96.01%, while Bermuda declined the most at -44.87%.” or a 141% spread between the best and worst performing equity markets in 2010. (Bespoke)
Chart of the day
The year in the VIX. (VIX and More)
Markets
The average bull market lasts three times as long as the average bear market. (Bespoke)
Doug Kass is looking for a sideways market in 2011. (TheStreet)
Equity investors are borrowing on margin again. (SurlyTrader)
Dr. Copper and China have disengaged. (Dragonfly Capital)
The currency carry trade was a loser in 2010. (Bloomberg)
The farmland bull market illustrated. (The Reformed Broker)
Strategy and Tactics
Can minimalist trading survive on a proprietary trading desk? (Minimalist Trader)
On the value of “creativity and experimentation” in trading. (Bigger Capital)
Two Wall Street myths debunked. (Mark Hulbert, Woodshedder)
How to trade covered calls in an extended market. (Investing With Options)
Are convertible bonds a sweet spot in 2011? (Bloomberg)
Charles Kirk interviews Mark Minervini. (Kirk Report)
Companies
A look at the defense stocks. (YCharts Blog)
The ‘ultimate stock pickers‘ like the pharmaceutical stocks for yield. (Morningstar)
Could 2011 be the year of BP (BP)? (The Source)
A cheap Dutch insurer that could double and still be cheap. (Insider Monkey)
Most analysts are looking for lower home prices in 2011, but homebuilders are rallying. What gives? (AR Screencast)
Finance
Smelling a rat in the Fannie-Bank of America (BAC) mortgage putback deal. (Fortune Finance, Atlantic Business)
Colin Barr, “Just one in five large-cap fund managers outperformed the Russell 1000 index last year, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch.” (Street Sweep)
Exploring the the gray area of insider trading. (Kid Dynamite)
Providing liquidity is not necessarily risk-taking. (Points and Figures)
Are investments in financial technology a missed opportunity? (Free exchange)
What does history tell us about state defaults in the 19th century? (WSJ)
Facebook/Goldman/Twitter
How much risk is Goldman Sachs (GS) really taking with its Facebook stake? (Deal Journal)
More on the 500-person threshold and why it may not matter for Facebook. (Dealbook, SAI, WSJ)
Skeptical takes on the $50 billion Facebook valuation. (Fortune Finance, SAI)
For tech companies staying private is the new going public. (Dealbook)
Don’t forget there is a publicly traded, backdoor way to play the social networking frenzy. (Dealbook)
Investors are getting the hard sell for Twitter shares. (VC Dispatch)
Economy
New orders/Inventories rebound. (Pragmatic Capitalism)
Looking for reasons to be nervous? Here are five of them. (Real Time Economics)
What broke the link between productivity and income growth? (Atlantic Business)
What is monetary growth good for? (Buttonwood)
The true legacy of Robert Rubin. (Tim Duy)
A code of ethics for economists couldn’t hurt, but don’t expect it to help much. (Atlantic Business)
Signs of life in Europe. (Money Game)
Inflation in the Eurozone. (FT Alphaville)
Just because
The eleven elements of “clunk” in today’s writing. (The Chronicle)
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