Quote of the day

James Fallows, “Never put anything in an email message, to anyone, that would cause you serious problems if it fell into the wrong hands.”  (The Atlantic)

Chart of the day

XLU Total Return Price Chart

XLU Total Return Price data by YCharts

The utility sector has given up all its gains for the year.  (Market Montage)

Markets

Every sector is oversold at the moment.  (Bespoke)

The market is not in a low risk environment.  (Chris Perruna)

A Q3 earnings roundup.  (FT Alphaville)

As always, keep an eye on oil prices.  (Pragmatic Capitalism)

Trading

Why women make better traders.  (Trader Planet)

Why a quant’s edge can wane over time.  (Morningstar)

What is ‘reverse pyramiding‘?  (Darvas Trader)

Technical analysis

When and why technical analysis makes sense.  (Mercenary Trader)

David Merkel, “To the degree that technical analysis works, it is because they trace the bread crumbs of large valuation oriented investors.”  (Aleph Blog)

Strategy

Some of the most worthwhile investments don’t necessarily trade on an exchange.  (The Zikomo Letter)

Sometimes is pays to move beyond plain vanilla strategies.  (Felix Salmon)

Rick Ferri, “Successful investing requires a sound philosophy, a practical strategy and the discipline to follow through.”  (Rick Ferri)

If the election changed your financial plan you likely have a bad plan.  (Bucks Blog)

Companies

Can Best Buy ($BBY) win a price-match war with Amazon ($AMZN)?  (Pando Daily)

Can JC Penney ($JCP) pull out of its sales tailspin?  (Dealbook research puzzle pix)

Apple ($AAPL) is becoming a more traditional tech company, perk-wise.  (WSJ, GigaOM)

Microsoft ($MSFT) is losing its Windows chief, Steven Sinofsky.  (AllThingsD, GigaOM)

Mark Cuban does not have nice things to say about Facebook ($FB).  (ReadWrite also NYTimes)

Finance

What Leucadia ($LUK) sees in Jefferies Group ($JEF).  (NetNet, Dealbook, ibid)

The playing field for small-to-medium sized investment banks is shrinking.  (The Ticker)

Surprisingly, TARP didn’t lead to an increase in lending to small and mid-sized companies.  (Dealbreaker)

Alternatives

Money is still flowing into big buyout funds.  (Deal Journal)

Do investors know what they are getting in alternative assets?  (Institutional Investor)

Can private equity returns be (beta) replicated?  (FINalternatives)

ETFs

Who needs another domestic, value-focused ETF?  (IndexUniverse)

The ETF Deathwatch for November 2012.  (Invest With an Edge)

Just how big a deal is the ‘dividend cliff’ for dividend-related stocks.  (Focus on Funds)

William Bernstein on the over-hyped ETF price war.  (IndexUniverse)

Global

Despite a bounce in China skepticism about the BRICs remains.  (WSJ)

What a really expensive toilet tells about the state of the Japanese economy.  (Fortune)

Economy

On branding the downside of the ‘fiscal cliff.’  (FT Alphaville)

Why gasoline prices have a disproportionate effect on inflation expectations.  (LearnBonds)

Mixed financial media

Bloomberg is launching its own app platform for its terminals.  (FT)

Burton Malkiel joins online money manager Wealthfront as CIO.  (Wealthfront)

A discussion with Howard Reisman of StockRover.  (Tradestreaming)

In praise of ugly and functional corporate websites.  (Quartz)

Liquidity

From Pepsi ($PEP), a cola that claims to help you lose weight.  (Money & Co.)

Craft beers are coming to fast casual restaurants.  (Time)

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