Quote of the day

Joshua Brown, “When people obsess about the costs of a fund or of a particular investing strategy, I sometimes have to bite my tongue. Absent the context of a plan, it is a meaningless conversation.”  (The Reformed Broker)

Markets

There are upside breakouts all around the world.  (Humble Student)

Eight out of nine SPDR sectors are at new highs.  (StockCharts Blog)

Nearly every breadth measure shows the market is overbought.  (The Short Side of Long)

On the prospect for small caps to play some catch up?  (Alliance Bernstein)

Should we be worried margin debt has peaked?  (The Short Side of Long)

Strategy

When the stock market is ripping higher, liquid alts are going to lag.  (Jason Zweig)

There is a fine line between laziness and patience.  (Clear Eyes Investing)

Should you combine value factors?  (Greenbackd)

Checking in at the Morningstar Investor Conference.  (A Wealth of Common Sense, ibid)

The hurdle for newly found factors should be higher than commonly thought. (SSRN)

Companies

Tim Cook is setting Apple ($AAPL) up for its next phase.  (Quartz)

Yet another American company is trying to flee to Ireland for tax purposes.  (Dealbook)

Can conditions get any better for the big private equity firms?   (FT)

Bonds

For whom should the bond market be structured?  (Matt Levine)

Bond ETFs are becoming an increasingly important part of the bond market.  (FT Alphaville)

Finance

Rene Stulz, “The astonishing thing is that decade after decade, there are these periods of great excitement, with lots of big mergers and acquisitions, yet we see the same basic pattern of losses…”  (NYTimes)

How CFOs should try to implement buyback programs.  (Institutional Investor)

Prime brokers need to bet paid.  (FT Alphaville)

Harvard is in search of an endowment chief for the long run.  (WSJ)

Smart beta

The many problems with smart beta.  (FT)

The term ‘smart beta’ has jumped the shark.  (Focus on Funds)

Funds

Five ways mutual fund companies could treat investors better.  (Chuck Jaffe)

Index fund share is growing albeit slowly.  (Carpe Diem)

Global

Checking in on global home price trends.  (Bespoke)

Does the CAPE work in non-US markets?  (FT)

Economy

US manufacturing is hitting on all cylinders.  (Business Insider)

The economic story of the Summer: budding inflation.  (Joe Weisenthal also A Dash of Insight, WSJ)

It’s hard to see sustained inflation without wage growth.  (Tim Duy)

Should you bet against the FOMC?  (Sober Look)

An increasing number of young Americans are still living with their parents.  (NYTimes)

Earlier on Abnormal Returns

Summing up the week of finance blogger wisdom posts with some additional answers.  (Abnormal Returns)

Mixed media

Brenda Jubin, “Rational Expectations [by William Bernstein] is a sophisticated personal finance book, many cuts above the usual pap that gets served up to investors.”  (Reading the Markets)

Should we really be trying to make buying stuff on your phone easier?  (Carl Richards)

Nine habits you need to stop now.  (Farnam Street)

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