Quote of the day

Martha King, “We believe that the great ETF land rush is over. Virtually every square inch of the market is tracked by an ETF.”  (Focus on Funds)

Chart of the day

Gold’s range is narrowing.  (Phil Pearlman chart via The Short Side of Long)

Markets

It’s hard to tell what is a “risk on” asset these days.  (Sober Look)

Bring on the correction already.  (The Reformed Broker)

A look at how major asset classes are performing.  (Capital Spectator also Big Picture)

Australia overbought, Brazil not.  (Global Macro Monitor)

Secular bull (and bear) markets are only known in hindsight.  (WSJ also Big Picture)

Strategy

Alternative investments are a hotbed for adviser fraud.  (NYTimes)

What exactly do you get with broad commodity indices?  (Minyanville)

What would an “all-weather” sector portfolio look like?  (CSS Analytics)

Value stocks come in a variety of flavors.  (Rick Ferri)

On the paradox of indexing.  (Planet Money)

Bruce Berkowitz on why it does clients a disservice to spend time with them.  (Market Folly)

Apple

Apple ($AAPL) is testing an iWatch.  (WSJ, Bits)

Why hasn’t Apple been more aggressive with it’s cash hoard?  (Eric Jackson)

Is Apple done innovating?  (Techland)

Finance

Analyst price targets are BS.  (The Reformed Broker)

Opposition to the Dell ($DELL) deal mount.  (Market Folly, Kid Dynamite)

Why are corporations holding so much cash?  (Noahpinion)

Why hasn’t Moody’s ($MCO) been sued?  (WSJ)

Retail forex customers will soon be unable to fund their accounts with a credit card.  (WSJ)

ETFs

On the hidden costs of free ETF trades.  (Marketwatch)

The actively managed PIMCO Foreign Currency Strategy Exchange Traded Fund ($FORX) to launch.  (Focus on Funds, ETF Trends)

Global

When finance ministers provide stock price targets.  (Felix Salmon, Money Game)

All eyes are on the Yen (and the Nikkei).  (Money Game)

Checking in on China’s stock market rally.  (beyondbrics)

Don’t be fooled: Euro stocks are not all that cheap.  (FT)

Investor interest in the BRICS continues to ebb.  (InvestmentNews also Bonddad Blog)

Economy

Why Q4 GDP will likely get revised higher.  (AlphaNow)

If oil imports are down why are gasoline prices rising?  (Econbrowser)

Just how worried is the Fed about a credit bubble?  (Gavyn Davies)

Earlier on Abnormal Returns

Ed Thorp and Warren Buffett on beating the market. An excerpt from Gray and Carlisle’s Quantitative Value: A Practitioner’s Guide to Automating Intelligent Investment and Eliminating Behavioral Errors.  (Abnormal Returns)

Mixed media

One of these men will be the next pope.  (Business Insider)

The political science of papal elections.  (Wonkblog)

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