Quote of the day

SRS, “In markets, pessimism is almost never the way to go. It’s more productive to be optimistic and to try to find investment strategies that will work for you over the long run.”  (Systematic Relative Strength)

Chart of the day

Buy Canada, sell Australia?  (Humble Student)

Dividends

On the impact of the “fiscal cliff” and/or higher interest rates on dividend stocks.  (Forbes, Covestor)

On the downside of the dividend ETF craze.  (IndexUniverse)

Strategy

A good checklist is short, but not “too short” and is selective.  (FT)

An investor’s guide to fees and expenses.  (Bloomberg)

Deception

Beware: paid promotion is everywhere these days.  (I Heart Wall Street)

Jeff Miller, “There is a bull market in deception.”  (A Dash of Insight)

ETFs

How to overpay for a S&P 500 ETF with “tail protection.”  (Condor Options, Focus on Funds)

New broader international equity ETFs put iShares in competition with itself.  (IndexUniverse)

The Pimco Total Return Bond ETF ($BOND) seems to be coming back to the pack.  (InvestmentNews)

Flip a coin: ETF performance lives up to its backtest about half the time.  (Institutional Investor)

Companies

What companies are in the “demand generation” or “demand fulfillment” business?  (Pando Daily)

One of these days Amazon ($AMZN) is going to start giving away Kindles.  (Slate)

More insider selling at SalesForce.com ($CRM).  (Value Plays)

Bill Ackman in defense of JC Penney ($JCP).  (Clusterstock)

Finance

iShares is pushing ETFs hard through the pipeline and cutting fees along the way.  (FT, ibid)

Hedge funds are gearing up to advertise as Madison Ave. weighs in.  (WSJ, ibid also Dealbook)

Knight Capital ($KCG) regroups as its business stabilizes.  (WSJ)

A race to bottom: the LSE now looks to lower its listing requirements.  (Bloomberg)

Global

If China weakens, commodities prices have a long way to fall.  (MacroBusiness)

Don’t expect the Chinese government to tell you the truth about the economy.  (Sober Look)

Everybody is down on the prospects for the Australian economy.  (Money Game)

Economy

Gasoline prices are approaching all-time highs.  (Pragmatic Capitalism)

Consumers continued to deleverage in Q2.  (Calculated Risk)

What are the economic implications of people living longer?  (Real Time Economics)

Drought aside, US farm incomes are expected to reach a record this year.  (FT)

On the unintended consequence of QE.  (FT Alphaville)

Earlier on Abnormal Returns

Heidi Moore mentioned the Abnormal Returns book among the “Must Read Wall Street books for Summer 2012.”  (Marketplace)

Abnormal Returns was mentioned in “The Web’s Best Sites for Value Investing.” (Old School Value)

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

Mixed media

Reason #257 why CNBC ratings are down.  (Big Picture)

The best TV shows set in school.  (Paste Magazine)

America loves the Taco Bell Doritos Loco taco.  (Money & Co.)

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