Quote of the day

KD, “If you don’t understand a complicated product, it doesn’t mean the product shouldn’t exist – it means you shouldn’t buy it.”  (Kid Dynamite)

Chart of the day

Homebuilders are still on a tear.  (Money Game, Focus on Funds)

Markets

Low Treasury bond yields as a simple case of supply and demand.  (MarketBeat)

One last look at May market performance.  (Big Picture, Pragmatic Capitalism, Mark Hulbert, )

The Fed model at work:  US and Australia editions.  (Covestor, Financial Freepress)

How leverage affects real estate returns.  (EconomPic Data)

Commodities

Commodities traders are losing their physical edge.  (FT also FT Alphaville)

What does it cost to extract the marginal barrel of oil?  (FT Alphaville)

How trading commodity options is different than equity options.  (Investing With Options)

Trading

On the importance of trading what you see.  (Stock Sage)

Four quick ways to get better at trading.  (SMB Training)

Diversification

How to further diversify a fixed income portfolio.  (Random Roger)

Diversification still works.  (Morningstar)

How does switching into bonds in May affect performance?  (MarketSci Blog)

Insight

Long term investing success is about identifying paradigm shifts.  (Distressed Debt Investing)

Don’t afraid to admit you are wrong: reading the volatility in Herablife ($HLF).  (Kid Dynamite also Ivanhoff Capital, Dealbreaker)

Valuation

Is there a way to sort the net-net universe to generate better returns?  (Turnkey Analyst)

There is no evidence that long-term normalized price ratios outperform single-year ratios.  (Greenbackd)

Companies

You have got to be kidding me. Chesapeake Energy ($CHK) CEO McClendon ran a hedge fund on the side.  (Reuters also TRB)

Why can’t Google ($GOOG) get people to upgrade Android on their phones?  (SAI)

LED lighting is coming: the litigation comes first.  (Bloomberg)

News flash: most mergers don’t pay off.  (Term Sheet)

Finance

Not every IPO comes fast out of the gate.  (WSJ)

New stewardship ratings for companies.  (Morningstar)

Despite dissatisfaction customers don’t seem to be willing to abandon the big banks.  (MacroBusiness)

What are “B-corps” and how might they change the corporate landscape?  (Felix Salmon)

Funds

Physically backed industrial metal ETFs are coming.  (Institutional Investor)

Do hedge fund managers really earn their fees?  (AlphaClone)

VIX ETNs have hurt a number of unwary investors.  (Bloomberg)

Global

What happened to the global economy in April?  (Money Game, Free exchange)

Central Europe is getting dragged down by Europe’s woes.  (beyondbrics)

Does currency market intervention ever work?  (MarketBeat)

China’s population will peak in 2026.  (Bloomberg)

Remember when China used to run a trade surplus?  (NYTimes)

Economy

The ADP employment report for April disappoints.  (Bloomberg, Capital Spectator)

Is the Fed any closer to embracing NGDP targeting?  (The Atlantic)

The book

David Merkel reviewed Abnormal Returns: Winning Strategies From the Frontlines of the Investment Blogosphere.  (Aleph Blog)

We recently did a Q&A focused on lesson for young investors. (Finance Addict)

Four pointers from the Abnormal Returns blog.  (Brighter Life)

Abnormal Returns was mentioned amongst the best financial news aggregators. (Mutual Fund Observer)

Earlier on Abnormal Returns

Nancy Miller author The Facebook IPO Primer on how to value social media companies like Facebook ($FB).  (Abnormal Returns)

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

Disruptive times

Entrepreneurs can’t succeed with one on the door.  (Information Arbitrage)

If you are just doing it for the money, you are likely doing it wrong.  (Points and Figures)

Kickstarter is going through some growing pains.  (Felix Salmon)

Disruption is coming to higher education: Harvard and MIT weigh in.  (NYTimes)

Abnormal Returns is a founding member of the StockTwits Blog Network.

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