Quote of the day
Jeff Carter, “If you aren’t totally passionate about it you will quit when the going gets rough. I guarantee that the going will get really rough. Businesses and markets have a way of chasing the weak hands out.” (Points and Figures)
Chart of the day
The decline in mortgage REITs is accelerating. (Focus on Funds)
Markets
High yield bond fund inflows foreshadow trouble down the road. (Covestor)
The silver/gold ratio and the prospects of deflation. (Market Anthropology)
Why is the $VIX futures curve so steep? (VIX and More)
Strategy
The best investors aren’t doing it to ‘show off.’ (The Reformed Broker)
There’s more than one way to invest. (Random Roger)
Why financial advisers lie. (Rick Ferri)
Multimedia
Bruce Berkowitz talks with Consuelo Mack about his favorite stocks. (Wealthtrack)
An interview with Foliofn CEO Steve Wallman. (Tradestreaming)
Nate Silver’s The Signal and the Noise: Why So Many Predictions Fail but Some Don’t is filled with more signal than noise. (Tim Harford)
How Roger Babson became a financial rock star after the 1929 stock market crash. (The Memory Palace)
Companies
Why isn’t Sprint ($S) higher today on the Softbank deal? (Kid Dynamite, Deal Journal)
Why Amazon ($AMZN) may be interested in Texas Instruments’ ($TXN) mobile chip business. (GigaOM)
Hedge funds
Even veteran hedge funds like Caxton Associates are cutting their fees. (WSJ)
When you sell your hedge fund company be careful the currency you take back. (FT)
Finance
California’s credit spreads have come way in, but risks remain. (Sober Look)
A fit financial system would be one in which bank failures are a ‘routine occurrence.’ (Interfluidity)
ETFs
What ETF premiums say about future returns. (SSRN)
Unnecessary complexity thy name is the proposed First Trust High Yield Long/Short ETF. (IndexUniverse)
Global
Would central banks ever cancel the government debt they hold? (Gavyn Davies, Buttonwood’s notebook)
Where is all the money that is going into the Nordic countries going? (FT)
Economy
Retail sales saw a big jump in September. (Calculated Risk, Money Game, Capital Spectator)
US home inventories continue to shrink. (Sober Look)
Consumers are ignoring the fiscal cliff. (Wonkblog)
The US is missing the boat when it comes to entrepreneurial immigration. (Economist)
Theoretical economics
Two Americans win the Nobel Prize in Economics for matching theory. (WSJ, Digitopoly, Freakonomics, Marginal Revolution, Planet Money)
Just how far the economics profession has come math-wise. (QZ)
Earlier on Abnormal Returns
What you missed in our Monday morning linkfest. (Abnormal Returns)
Music
Microsoft ($MSFT) looks to take on Pandora ($P) and Spotify in streaming music. (Bloomberg, Eric Savitz)
Bob Pittman looking to revitalize radio and Clear Channel Communications. (WSJ)
Mixed media
Somali pirates are in retreat. (Quartz)
The details on Felix Baumgartner’s supersonic jump. (Scientific American)
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