Quote of the day

Wade Slome, “Much like dieting, investing involves the trade-offs between short-term impulses and long-term choices.”  (Investing Caffeine)

Chart of the day

Signs that Facebook ($FB) stock is under accumulation.  (chessNwine)

Markets

Three positive signs in a dismal market.  (The Reformed Broker)

Signs that things got oversold last week.  (Quantifiable Edges, Humble Student of the Markets)

Realized stock correlations have fallen: what next?  (Condor Options)

Some companies that have the potential to pay special dividends before year-end.  (Money Game)

Strategy

Is low-vol a low-beta phenomenon?  (Falkenblog)

If you profited from this buyout, you are a bad trader.  (Brian Lund)

How hormone levels affect trader decision making.  (MarketPsych)

Companies

Apple ($AAPL) should finish the job that Sinofsky started.  (Monday Note)

Why Cisco ($CSCO) is doubling down on Wi-Fi with the Meraki Networks purchase.  (GigaOM)

A look back at five years of the Amazon ($AMZN) Kindle.  (Businessweek)

The next CEO of Intel ($INTC) has a tough job ahead of him/her.  (MarketBeat, Quartz)

The challenge facing venture capital-fund companies in the $1 billion club.  (Bits)

Finance

Why Warren Buffett likes Wells Fargo ($WFC) so much.  (YCharts Blog)

DoubleLine Capital now manages more than $50 billion.  (FINalternatives)

The hedge funds are killing it this year.  (Market Folly)

Money market mutual funds are headed towards floating NAVs.  (FT Alphaville)

Funds

ETF indices get tweaked all the time.  (IndexUniverse)

Ten things your mutual fund company won’t tell you.  (Marketwatch)

Global

Can France reform its economy before it is too late?  (Economist)

Just how ugly things are in the Euro economy.  (Econbrowser, Bonddad Blog)

Why is austerity the lingua franca of fiscal policy?  (Tim Duy)

Brazil is becoming a corn export power.  (WashingtonPost)

Foreign bonds

One manager’s huge bets on Irish bonds.  (FT)

You’ve heard of frontier markets, but what about frontier market bonds?  (LearnBonds)

Fiscal cliff

Why you should expect a resolution to the fiscal cliff.  (A Dash of Insight)

Are markets too complacent about a timely solution to the fiscal cliff?  (Quartz )

Putting the fiscal cliff into perspective.  (Alpha Now also Sober Look)

The fiscal cliff is holding back business investment.  (BCA Research, WSJ)

How would bonds react to us falling off the fiscal cliff?  (BondSquawk)

Economy

Homebuilders are getting downright giddy.  (Calculated Risk, Bespoke)

How big an effect did Hurricane Sandy have on the US economy?  (Sober Look)

Energy

Kate Mackenzie, “Long-term forecasting for energy supply and demand is notoriously difficult, like most other types of long-term forecasting.” (FT Alphaville)

Should the US discourage energy exports?  (WSJ, ibid)

Mixed media

For whom do placebos work best?  (Scientific American)

Why are online games so addictive?  (Fast Company)

Your brain on coupons.  (Pando Daily)

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