Quote of the day

Warren Buffett, “Whether the currency a century from now is based on gold, seashells, shark teeth, or a piece of paper (as today), people will be willing to exchange a couple of minutes of their daily labor for a Coca-Cola or some See’s peanut brittle.” (Fortune)

Chart of the day

Apple Market Cap Chart by YCharts

Apple ($AAPL) is now worth more than Microsoft ($MSFT) and Google ($GOOG) combined.  (AppleInsider)

Markets

Warren Buffett joins the crowd of big names pushing stocks and picks a fight with the gold bugs.  (MarketBeat, Slate)

If needed another reason to be worried about long term Treasury bonds.  (Dragonfly Capital)

Sentiment is getting increasingly bullish.  (Pragmatic Capitalism)

What do “stock fractures” tell us about future market moves?  (New Scientist)

Strategy

Three “not stupid ways” to short a runaway train like Apple ($AAPL).  (SFO, Bespoke)

A real investment operation makes sense on any number of levels.  (the research puzzle)

The options market contains information investors can exploit.  (SSRN)

Financial advisers are chomping at the bit to buy individual stocks again.  (Financial Adviser)

Companies

The seven habits of spectacularly unsuccessful CEOs, redux.  (Eric Jackson)

Diamond Foods ($DMND) has got some explaining to do.  (Kid Dynamite, Bronte Capital)

Launch news:  iPad 3 and a Google cloud storage product.  (AllThingsD, WSJ)

Google ($GOOG) has survived long enough to become a patent “villain.”  (Pando Daily)

The bear case for Groupon ($GRPN).  (TechInsidr, SAI)

Finance

How two companies have handled their share buyback programs.  (Capital Observer)

Short sales as a savior of the housing economy.  (Businessweek)

A look at the mortgage settlement.  (Felix Salmon, Sober Look)

The new wave of IPOs is coming with some governance strings attached.  (peHUB)

The biggest venture capital firms at risk of becoming too big for their own good.  (FT)

ETFs

Why is Vanguard launching foreign bond funds with the currency hedged?  (Capital Spectator)

Is it worth it to try and generate alpha on core fixed income?  (iShares Blog)

Global

The deleveraging cycle in Japan and why the US is not Japan, redux.  (Crackerjack Finance)

There is always a housing bubble somewhere:  the Canadian edition.  (Economist)

Economy

The economy is getting better.  Sometimes politics gets in the way in seeing it.  (A Dash of Insight)

Weekly initial jobless claims continue to trend lower.  (Calculated Risk, Capital Spectator)

Inflation expectations are once again perking up.  Hello, 2%.  (Sober Look)

The cash conundrum illustrated.  (Calafia Beach Pundit)

Earlier on Abnormal Returns

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

Mixed media

Jack Schwager talks the traits of the “Market Wizards” in this video.  (bclund)

Why being sleepy and/or drunk is good for creativity.  (The Frontal Cortex)

Shakes are the new [fill in the blank].  (LATimes)

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