Quote of the day

Eddy Elfenbein, “When you combine this total lack of comprehension with Americans’ ever-growing sense of entitlement—our sense that not being able to pay for the things we want should be no impediment to our buying them—you have a disturbing sense that our culture that is in deep trouble.”  (Crossing Wall Street)

Chart of the day

IYR Total Return Price data by YCharts

The public timber REITs, like Weyerhauser ($WY), are a play on the housing recovery.  (Barron’s)

Markets

It is hard to find cheap REITs these days.  (Institutional Imperative)

Signs that the rush for dividends has gone too far.  (Barron’s)

That sinking feeling: investing in royalty trusts.  (Jason Zweig)

Putting the global equity market recoveries into perspective.  (Big Picture, Carpe Diem)

Strategy

In search of a trading mentor.  (Fireside Charts)

How Warren Buffett is different than most investors.  (Aleph Blog)

Be careful making big moves in advance of any potential tax changes.  (Barron’s)

How do beta-arbitrage strategies work?  (SSRN via @quantivity)

Hedge funds

Jonathan Ford, “hedge funds are now too big and numerous for their own good.”  (FT)

We are going to learn a lot more about the big hedge funds next week via Form PF.  (New York)

Should individual investors get involved in hedge funds?  (WSJ)

Apple

Apple ($AAPL) decisively beats Samsung in their patent litigation.  (WSJ, FT)

The upshot of the Apple victory.  (Wired, The Verge)

Why Samsung’s decisions actually made sense.  (Pando Daily)

Companies

Even below $5, Groupon ($GRPN) shares look expensive.  (Musings on Markets)

The shareholder soap opera that is General Growth Properties ($GGP).  (Dealbreaker)

Finance

Barron’s turns its eye to state finances.  (Barron’s)

Why are big hedge fund investors wasting their money in the SPDR Gold Shares ($GLD)?  (IndexUniverse)

Global

The Dutch housing market is going in the tank.  (Sober Look)

Higher food prices have a disproportionate effect on developing markets.  (Greed, Grains & Green)

Who really benefits from a weak Euro?  (Sober Look)

Economy

Keep an eye on unemployment claims in light of higher gasoline prices.  (Bonddad Blog)

Fears of inflation should not be holding back the Fed at this point.  (Economist’s View)

Earlier on Abnormal Returns

What you missed in our Saturday long form linkfest.  (Abnormal Returns)

Top clicks this week on the site.  (Abnormal Returns)

Mixed media

RIP, Neil Armstrong.  (NYTimes, Bad Astronomy, xkcd)

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