Quote of the day
Rob Carrick, “The mutual fund industry dines off your ignorance.” (The Globe and Mail)
Chart of the day
Is the consumer discretionary sector losing steam? (All Star Charts)
Markets
Wanna hedge the S&P 500? It’s pretty cheap at the moment. (Focus on Funds)
2013 should be another year of record dividends. (MarketBeat)
Ten reasons to NOT be so bullish in 2013. (Big Picture)
Hedge funds
Quant hedge funds had a rough 2012. (Bloomberg)
Managed account platforms are the future of hedge funds. (All About Alpha)
John Paulson did better in 2012 than you think. (II Alpha)
Eddie Lampert is set to become CEO of Sears Holdings ($SHLD). (WSJ)
Strategy
The risks of diversifying beyond a 60/40 portfolio are often more than the original risk taken. (InvestmentNews)
Be wary of top-down investing. (Crossing Wall Street)
The many lies we tell ourselves as investors. (Big Picture)
The traits of a really bad trader. (Brian Lund)
We are obsessed with being right and nine more lessons from Mark Douglas. (Ivanhoff Capital)
A Q&A with the John Del Vecchio and Tom Jacobs authors of What’s Behind the Numbers? A Guide to Exposing Financial Chicanery and Avoiding Huge Losses in Your Portfolio. (SumZero)
Companies
Apple’s ($AAPL) iPad business would be the 11th largest tech company on a standalone basis. (Apple 2.0)
Technology is not just for technology companies. (GigaOM)
Finance
The big banks settled a series of mortgage-related suits. (WSJ)
Is Bank of America ($BAC) ready to get back into the mortgage business? (Quartz)
Volcker rule be damned, Goldman Sachs ($GS) is still betting company money. (Bloomberg, Felix Salmon)
Talk about biting the hand that bails you out: AIG ($AIG) is thinking about suing the US government. (Dealbook, Wonkblog, Cassandra Does Tokyo)
Should university endowment funds invest in funds managed by its own trustees? (Dealbook)
Dark pools are coming in for more oversight in 2013. (WSJ)
Funds
Five big ETF megatrends in 2013. (AdvisorOne via TRB)
Beware the lure of award-winning funds. (Chuck Jaffe)
ETF statistics for December 2012. (Invest With an Edge)
Global
On the rise of the emerging market consumer class. (Economist)
Don’t get attached to the Euro rally. (Market Anthropology)
Economy
How big a negative is the return of the full payroll tax? (FT Alphaville, Wonkblog)
The budget deficit is more tractable than commonly thought. (Calculated Risk)
Why housing prices should continue to rise in 2013. (Calculated Risk)
Everybody calm down. Nobody is minting a trillion dollar platinum coin. (Felix Salmon, WSJ)
Economists rely on some pretty shoddy data. (Slate)
Why econ bloggers see things differently than academia. (Bonddad Blog)
Earlier on Abnormal Returns
The principal-agent problem in fund management. (Abnormal Returns)
Mixed media
How drones could introduce point-to-point delivery. (kottke)
On the effectiveness of short bursts of exercise. (WSJ)
Even brief interruptions can cause errors. (Eurakalert via @markthoma)
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