Quote of the day

Tim Richards, “In the face of the unknown a little humility is our best protection. Be tentative in your decision making, change your mind if the facts change, diversify widely and don’t go around boasting about your successes: be humble, and become wealthy.”  (The Psy-Fi Blog)

Chart of the day

ExxonMobil ($XOM) is losing ground, market cap-wise, to Google ($GOOGL) and Microsoft ($MSFT).  (Bespoke)

Markets

How low inflation is affecting current stock valuations.  (The Brooklyn Investor)

A recap of the Value Investing Congress: New York 2014.  (Market Folly)

Investors hate gold miners.  (Felder Report)

Strategy

Never take investment advice from a political pundit.  (Marketwatch)

Make sure you understand your assumptions when designing a portfolio.  (Humble Student)

Apple

Apple is going after the high value Android users.  (Benedict Evans)

The iPhone 6 looks and feels great.  (David Pogue)

How much progress has Apple made in the past two years?  (Dan Nathan)

What problem does Apple Pay really fix?  (Bits contra WSJ)

What is the purpose of the Apple Watch?  (stratechery also Hodinkee)

Finance

Hedge fund managers shouldn’t be paid for doing nothing.  (Bloomberg)

Experienced analysts continue to flee the big banks.  (WSJ)

Should investors be wary of Alibaba’s ($BABA) books?  (Dealbook)

ETFs

Is there a good reason to buy an actively managed fund?  (Monevator)

Is your balanced fund filled up with junk bonds?  (Morningstar)

Economy

Weekly initial unemployment claims ticked higher last week.  (Calculated Risk)

Earlier on Abnormal Returns

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

More Apple

RIP, the iPod Classic.  (Slate)

How Apple Pay could make you poorer.  (Cass Sunstein)

The U2/Apple hook-up was a big fail.  (Lefsetz Letter also New Yorker)

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