Quote of the day

David Merkel, “Don’t buy what someone want to sell to you.  Buy what you have researched, and what you think has value.”  (Aleph Blog)

Chart of the day

Source:  Finviz

REITs

REITs need a friend. (MarketBeat)

Mortgage REITs have been taken it on the chin along with the financials.  (Focus on Funds)

On the risks of non-traded REITs.  (Above the Market)

Markets

The ongoing battle between stocks and bonds for investor money.  (Crossing Wall Street)

The state of short-term mean reversion.  (MarketSci Blog)

Just how important are “key reversal” days?  (MarketBeat)

Just how extreme has been the selling of late?  (Market Anthropology)

Why $VXX has been outperforming $VIX of late.  (SurlyTrader)

The presidential election cycle is not a straight line up.  (Crossing Wall Street)

Remember when TMT stocks were a big deal?  (research puzzle pix)

Strategy

The case against a long term investment in commodities.  (WSJ)

Sometimes market anomalies disappear.  (Capital Spectator)

Opportunities are opening up in the high yield/distressed space.  (Distressed Debt Investing)

You can always buy a stock back.  (Tyler’s Trading)

In low volatility investing the benchmark still matters.  (Falkenblog)

Why the bear market is good for your 401(k) plan.  (Planet Money)

This is the kind of market where you want to listen to geezers.  (Marketwatch)

How false rumors can affect a stock.  (Dealbreaker)

Companies

Is Akamai ($AKAM) now cheap enough to buy?  (Bloomberg)

Why is everybody so down on the iPhone 4S?  (The Atlantic)

Yum! Brands ($YUM) is still killing it in China.  (Crackerjack Finance)

Why Google ($GOOG) should fear Siri.  (SplatF)

Bill Ackman wants no part of HP ($HPQ).  (Businessweek, Insider Monkey)

ETFs

ETF pure-play, WisdomTree Investments ($WETF) has gotten whacked.  (Focus on Funds earlier Abnormal Returns)

Synthetic ETFs are an accident waiting to happen.  (FT, ibid)

The AdvisorShares TrimTabs Float Shrink ETF ($TTFS) launches.  (ETFdb, IndexUniverse)

A screen for high yield domestic ETFs.  (allETF)

Finance

A rough September for hedge funds, except for Ken Griffin.  (Institutional Investor, Clusterstock)

A look at recent results from hedge fund cloning.  (Institutional Investor)

In praise of Morgan Stanley ($MS) CEO James Gorman.  (Financial Adviser also Kid Dynamite)

BNY Mellon ($BK) has a bit of a problem.  (WSJ)

Global

Bernanke wants to see a higher renminbi.  (FT, The Source)

Every crisis is different.  Look at 1998 instead of 2008.  (Macro Man)

The Eurozone is contracting.  (Pragmatic Capitalism)

Economy

ADP and the ISM Non-manufacturing Index come in largely in line. (Calculated Risk, ibid)

What do light truck sales about the economy?  (Carpe Diem, Dr. Ed’s Blog)

Layoffs are ramping up again.  (EconomPic Data)

Timing the next recession.  (MarketBeat)

Absent a full blown recession it seems the Fed has given up.  (Economist’s View)

Earlier on Abnormal Returns

The mutual fund industry has a problem.  (Abnormal Returns)

What you missed in our Wednesday morning linkfest.  (Abnormal Returns)

Mixed media

More Americans are bringing work home.  (The Atlantic)

The “two cow challenge” gets even weirder.  (Marginal Revolution)

Bill Gross feels fat.  (Dealbreaker)

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