Quote of the day

David Merkel, “I think shorting is a difficult way to make money.  Double alpha sounds wonderful in theory, but is really difficult to do in practice.”  (Aleph Blog)

Chart of the day

World food prices are on the rise.  (WSJ, chart:  FAO)

Markets

Doug Kass, “Speculation has entered the market.”  (TheStreet also Barron’s)

Individual investors are still bullish.  (Pragmatic Capitalism)

The history of corporate bond yields.  (EconomPic Data)

Are rising interest rates good or back for the stock market?  (The Source)

The VIX methodology is being extended to individual stocks.  (VIX and More)

FIve investment themes from Morgan Stanley (MS).  (Pragmatic Capitalism)

Strategy and Tactics

On the importance of getting on the right side of investment themes.  (Financial Adviser)

Derek Hernquist, “What separates the traders above, and why they so consistently make money, is the ability to maintain flexibility.”  (StockTwitsU)

Mike Bellafiore, “As a trader your goal is not to make money on a position.  It is to control your risk.”  (SMB Training)

Eli Radke, “(I)ncrease risk when you become successful not to become successful.”  (Trader Habits)

Venture into the pink sheets at your own risk.  (CXO Advisory Group, Crossing Wall Street, the research puzzle)

On the benefits of blogging for the trader/investor.  (Abnormal Returns)

Money managers

Check out the best performing (big) hedge fund(s) in 2010.  (Bloomberg, Dealbreaker, Clusterstock)

The Morningstar fund managers of the year for 2010.  (Morningstar)

Now is a good time to set up a hedge fund.  (Fortune Finance)

Companies

Don’t look now but Moody’s (MCO) stock is flying.  (Street Sweep also Big Picture)

Are healthier consumers going to ditch discount stores?  (The Source)

Sell on the new logo, buy on the reversal.  (MarketBeat)

Technology

The 2011 CES confirms “the end of the PC era.”  (Asymco)

Will a LinkedIn IPO be the start of a social networking IPO boom?  (Dealbook)

Groupon should go public now.  (Deal Journal)

Speculation about ARM Holdings (ARMH) runs rampant.  (FT Alphaville)

Not every company that raises a big round, thrives or even survives.  (Dealbook)

Finance

Wall Street wants you to buy fear protection.  (Street Sweep)

Another reason to expect more private equity IPOs:  succession issues.  (WSJ)

Jesse Eisinger, “The lesson is that the agencies are still susceptible to problems that plagued them before the crisis.”   (Dealbook)

The 30-year fixed rate mortgage is an (overpriced) artificial construct.  (NYTimes)

Shocked to read that banks are still offering wacky structured notes.  (Bloomberg)

The ADR business must be pretty lucrative.  (IR Web Report)

GoldBook

Why companies like Facebook don’t want to come public and what the SEC can do about it.  (Justin Fox)

Goldman Sachs (GS) is full up on Facebook share interest.  (WSJ, Term Sheet)

Facebook is more profitable than generally thought.  (SAI)

Are taxpayers implicitly financing Goldman’s investment in Facebook?  (Economix)

Goldman is back to their old tricks.  (Jeff Matthews)

Aswath Damodaran on the Facebook transaction and valuation.  (Musings on Markets)

Global

An interesting crossover.  (Global Macro Monitor)

Why isn’t the Euro already a lot lower?  (AR Screencast)

Euro, shmeuro.  German factory orders are booming.  (Bloomberg)

Is Canada at risk of overheating?  (Atlantic Business)

Economy

Unemployment claims are still pointed in the right direction.  (Calculated Risk, Crossing Wall Street)

For the US economy the tide is changing for the better.  (Calculated Risk, Credit Writedowns, FT Alphaville)

At some point the Fed will have to acknowledge stronger economic data.  (Tim Duy)

Companies finally ready to fill the open positions they have.  (Mandel on Innovation)

Eric Falkenstein, “Business cycles and the essence of long-run economic growth are distinct issues.”  (Falkenblog)

Why $3.50 a gallon gasoline won’t be that big a deal this time around.  (Daniel Gross earlier AR Screencast)

Better disclosure should make for better economists.  (Slate)

Just because

James Altucher on Howard Lindzon.  (Altucher Confidential also TRB)

On the educational benefits of slightly difficult to read fonts.  (Frontal Cortex)

On the power of blogging and the baseball hall of fame.  (Reason)

The spotty record of top college quarterbacks in the NFL.  (Wired)

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