Quote of the day

David Merkel, “Be skeptical of complexity in exchange traded products.  Avoid complexity.  Complexity works in favor of the one offering the deal, not the one accepting the deal.”  (Aleph Blog)

Markets

Uh oh. Late cycle sectors are outperforming.  (All Star Charts)

Americans increasingly think real estate is a good investment.  (Gallup)

Hedge funds are taking a hit on the technology pullback.  (WSJ)

Technology

Why is Yahoo’s ($YHOO) core business valued at less than $0?  (Matthew Levine)

The great stock buyback craze is coming to an end: the case of IBM ($IBM).  (Zero Hedge)

Why Tesla ($TSLA) needs a partner to build batteries.  (Quartz)

Ben Horowitz author of The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers on whether we are seeing a tech IPO bubble.  (Daily Ticker)

Marc Andreessen on why technology M&A numbers are often so big.  (Dealbook)

Finance

Lending Club is nearing an IPO.  (WSJ, FT)

Wal-Mart ($WMT) wants to undercut the money transfer giants.  (Businessweek, WSJ)

Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt fallout: high-frequency trader Virtu postpones an IPO.  (WSJ)

Just about anything constitutes insider trading these days.  (Bronte Capital)

ETFs

In praise of home-grown fund companies.  (Morningstar)

In search of a one-stop natural resources fund.  (Morningstar)

Global

The iShares Frontier Markets 100 ETF ($FM) is going to undergo some big changes.  (ETF)

Not all frontier funds are created alike.  (Frontiers)

Economy

2014 is shaping up as a good year for hotels.  (Calculated Risk)

Workers are earning decent raises.  (Real Time Economics)

Earlier on Abnormal Returns

Active vs. passive: try harder or do something easier?  (Abnormal Returns)

Automated investment management as a transitional moment for advisors.  (Abnormal Returns)

What you may have missed in our Thursday linkfest.  (Abnormal Returns)

Mixed media

The 50 television shows on Netflix includes Breaking Bad.  (Paste)

The top 100 animated movies includes Fantastic Mr. Fox.  (Time Out NY via kottke)

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