Quote of the day

Jason Zweig, “Yes, Wall Street is still a dangerous place. But it used to be worse.”  (Total Return)

Chart of the day

Stock correlations have come down alongside the equity rally.  (Reuters)

Markets

Why are $VIX futures so elevated?  (SurlyTrader)

Where one TAA model stands going into March.  (MarketSci Blog)

Checking in on the performance of the Ivy Portfolio.  (dshort)

Hedge funds

How buying “after the VCs but before the IPO” works for Tiger Global.  (Forbes)

The top 10 hedge funds by net gains since inception.  (Market Folly)

Companies

Why Apple ($AAPL) may not get to a $1 trillion in market cap.  (SAI)

The case for Amazon ($AMZN) being still overvalued.  (Herb Greenberg)

Companies expected to raise their dividends in March.  (Dynamic Dividend)

The success of US malls are dividing along class lines.  (WSJ)

Despite all the hoopla, Berkshire Hathaway ($BRKA) has not bought back many shares.  (Aleph Blog)

Finance

Why is the financial sector so big?  (Baseline Scenario)

Bank of America ($BAC) is looking for new ways to up fees for consumers.  (WSJ, naked capitalism)

401(k) investors change their contributions based on subtle cues.  (Freakonomics)

Didn’t get a bonus this year?  Join the ranks of whistle blowers.  (Finance Addict)

ETFs

$VIX ETNs dominate the VIX futures market.  (IndexUniverse)

Pimco is ahead of the curve in embracing ETFs.  (Fiscal Times, Bloomberg, Morningstar, ETFdb)

Global

No CDS payouts for you!  ISDA says no dice to Greek payouts.  (WSJ, FT, FT Alphaville)

Greece has broken the “sovereign default taboo.”  (Felix Salmon)

China seems to be going on a US dollar diet.  (WSJ)

Economy

Weekly initial unemployment claims continue their downtrend.  (Calculated Risk, Bespoke)

The ISM manufacturing survey shows continued, but subdued growth.  (Calculated Risk, Bespoke)

February retail sales look pretty good, maybe because of the weather.  (Money Game, NYTimes)

Is consumer spending at risk?  (Capital Spectator)

Earlier on Abnormal Returns

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

Mixed media

Daniel Kahneman author of Thinking, Fast and Slow talks with Charlie Rose.  (Charlie Rose Show)

The new five minute rule:  think about an idea before pushing back.  (Signal vs. Noise)

Reviews of the revolutionary new Lytro camera are rolling in.  (Gadgetwise, WSJ)

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