Quote of the day
Ben Carlson, “This is why the best actively managed strategies will be the ones that are easy to explain and understand. If you don’t understand it or the fund manager can’t easily explain it, the odds are that you will make hasty decisions and perpetuate the cycle of underperformance.” (A Wealth of Common Sense)
Chart of the day
The wall of worry illustrated over the past five years. (Bason Asset Management)
Markets
A big look at the US market from a valuation perspective. (Philosophical Economics)
Lower oil prices are helping out the American consumer. (FT)
Americans are flying airlines again. (Quartz)
Time frame
Jason Voss, “A primary difference between so-called value investors and so-called growth investors is a differing appreciation for time.” (Enterprising Investor)
Why investors often get burned in the “intermediate-term investor” zone. (Brian Lund)
Strategy
How to think like a technician. (Adam Grimes)
Good trading is about good decision making. (SMB Training)
Insights from Doug Kass’s first book Doug Kass on the Market: A Life on TheStreet. (Reading the Markets)
Research
How does “doubling down” work out for managers? (Alpha Architect)
On the predictability of “momentum crashes.” (SSRN)
Is private equity worth the bother? (ETF)
Companies
Twitter ($TWTR) has its work cut out for it. (Musings on Markets)
Why Amazon ($AMZN) should split its business in two. (Quartz also Fortune)
Who could buy Netflix ($NFLX)? (Fortune)
Is Facebook ($FB) Work going to work? (Digits, )
Finance
Scandals are pushing forex trading onto exchanges. (FT)
Why more diversity on Wall Street could help prevent bubbles. (The Upshot)
M&A
Bill Ackman is a huge winner this year. (Forbes, Dealbook)
2014 has been a huge year for M&A. (WSJ)
You can thank activists for much of this year’s M&A activity. (Dealbook)
M&A valuations are creeping into the danger zone. (Economist)
ETFs
The rising dollar has been a boon for the WisdomTree Bloomberg US Dollar Bullish Fund ($USDU). (ETF)
Five years in for the first active bond ETF, the PIMCO Enhanced Short Maturity ($MINT). (ETF Trends)
Why ETFs are a better mousetrap, tax-wise. (ETF)
Global
The US is the sole major economy not stagnating at present. (Wonkblog)
A review of the sad state of the Japanese economy. (Econbrowser)
Why oil price volatility is its own undoing. (The Upshot)
The UK real estate market is looking bubbly. (MoneyBeat)
Economy
Homebuilder confidence is on the rise. (Calculated Risk, Bespoke)
Commercial real estate is on fire. (Calafia Beach Pundit)
Why we should celebrate the improvements in the employment situation. (HBR)
Earlier on Abnormal Returns
What you might have missed in our Monday linkfest. (Abnormal Returns)
Mixed media
Apps are killing the web. No they are not. (WSJ vs. Daring Fireball, Slate, GigaOM)
No one actually knows how to regulate the Internet. (Justin Fox)
Can Joe Weisenthal change Bloomberg? (Buzzfeed)
You can support Abnormal Returns by visiting Amazon, signing up for our daily newsletter or following us on StockTwits, Yahoo Finance and Twitter.
