Quote of the day

Roger Ehrenberg, “The real news is blocking out noise and listening to your own voice as informed by the trusted and thoughtful content you choose to ingest. Spend a little time each day surveying the landscape, then go away.”  (Information Arbitrage)

Chart of the day

The year in hedge fund performance.  (EconomPic Data)

Markets

The retail trader is coming back.  (The Reformed Broker)

Hedge funds continue to reduce their equity exposure.  (market folly)

Why would you pay a premium over NAV to buy to buy silver?  (Kid Dynamite)

Jeff Carter, “Inflation is never bullish for stocks.”  (Points and Figures)

Strategy and Tactics

You should try and match your personality to a preferred trading style.  (SMB Training)

Rising interest rates?  Buy Japan.  (Pragmatic Capitalism)

On the difference between average and top performers.  (Farnam Street)

John Hussman fights the market (and loses).  (Hussman Funds also Money Game, The Reformed Broker)

Companies

A look at the defense sector.  (Crossing Wall Street)

The case against gadget maker Logitech International (LOGI).  (Bronte Capital)

Are conditions so bad for Dean Foods (DF) that things can only get better?  (AR Screencast)

You can’t have a bubble debate without a publicly traded vehicle:  the case of gourmet cupcakes.  (Dealbook, Money Game, Planet Money)

Finance

Proprietary traders continue to exit Goldman Sachs (GS).  (Dealbook)

Morgan Stanley (MS) is splitting off its high profile PDT Advisors unit.  (WSJ)

Distressed credits are harder to find these days.  (Bloomberg)

Is the era of ‘cheap capital‘ over?  (The Source)

Global

David Rosenberg is bullish on the US dollar….against the Euro.  (Globe and Mail also The Source)

On the prospects for a bailout for Portugal.  (FT Alphaville, The Source)

Don’t forget the Euro crisis is ultimately a political one.  (Global Macro Monitor)

Why are commodity prices up while the Baltic Dry Index is down? The floods in Australia.  (Houses and Holes)

A look at the continued rise in world food prices.  (VIX and More)

Emerging markets

Food inflation is a big deal in the emerging markets.  (Gavyn Davies)

Is the emerging markets play over?  (Beating Buffett, Money Game)

The much anticipated, emerging markets-focused, FT Tilt launches.  (FT Tilt, Infectious Greed, Felix Salmon)

Economics

The Federal Reserve made a “profit” of $81 billion in 2010.  (Street Sweep)

Count Minneapolis Fed President Narayana Kocherlakota in the pro-QE2 camp.  (WSJ)

The employment trend is higher.  (Pragmatic Capitalism)

On the value of experimentation in economic policy.  (Dan Ariely)

James Surowiecki, “The Great Depression invigorated the modern American labor movement. The Great Recession has crippled it.” (New Yorker)

Mixed media

“The Futures [by Emily Lambert] is a great read.”  (re: The Auditors)

Facebook will ultimately be marginalized because the friendships therein are “online fictions.”  (Rick Bookstaber)

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