On the bookshelf: Timothy F. McCarthy’s The Safe Investor: How to Make Your Money Grow in a Volatile Economy.

Quote of the day

Brian Lund, “For some reason, markets like the one we are in right now seem to attract soft money, not repel it. Investors and traders who should be doing nothing more than sitting on their hands and re-reading the Market Wizards series are rushing to “take advantage of the volatility.” (Brian Lund)

Chart of the day

Cord-cutting is a reality at Time Warner Cable ($TWC).  (Quartz)

Markets

Individual investor sentiment has turned tail in this correction.  (Bespoke)

The stock market is getting oversold in the short term.  (The Short Side of Long)

Margin debt jumped in December.  (Pragmatic Capitalism)

How cold weather is affecting energy markets.  (FT Alphaville, WSJ)

Strategy

What if we are in the midst of a bigger correction?  (ZorTrades)

Why rebalancing matters.  (Capital Spectator)

3-D printing stock enthusiasts beware.  (The Reformed Broker)

On the dangers of blind index investing.  (Felder Report)

Companies

How much money did Google ($GOOG) lose on its Motorola acquisition?  (Dealbook, ibid)

Facebook ($FB) is now one of the twentiest largest market cap companies in the US.  (Bespoke)

Ten reasons why Alibaba should buy Snapchat.  (TRB)

Finance

Wall Street loves the idea of securitizing single family rental payments.  (Dealbook)

Why every hedge fund wants to go activist.  (Business Insider)

Would nickel-wide spreads improve the stock market?  (Michael Santoli)

Institutional

Are Harvard and Yale overpaying their endowment managers?  (Bloomberg)

What’s the most important job of a chief investment officer?  (research puzzle pix)

Funds

The three downsides of smart beta.  (Rick Ferri)

Active vs. passive: the REIT edition.  (Morningstar)

Global

There are multiple fires burning through the emerging markets.  (Business Insider, WSJ)

Economy

A decent Q4 GDP report and the prospects for growth in 2014.  (Calculated Risk)

How the FOMC statement changed from December.  (Aleph Blog also WSJ, FT Alphaville)

The Fed wants out of the QE business.  (Tim Duy)

Earlier on Abnormal Returns

What you missed in our Wednesday linkfest.  (Abnormal Returns)

Mixed media

Hipster coffee is about to go national.  (Re/code, Term Sheet, Dealbook)

How Facebook’s ($FB) new app, Paper, could replace your Facebook app.  (The Verge)

50 reasons we are living in the greatest period in world history.  (Morgan Housel)

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