Holiday book alert: House of Debt: How They (and You) Caused the Great Recession, and How We Can Prevent It from Happening Again by Atif Mian and Amir Sufi received multiple recommendations in this Bloomberg survey of notable books.

Quote of the day

David Merkel, “Just say no to margin debt.”  (Aleph Blog)

Chart of the day

Dollar2014_1214

The US dollar crushed the competition in 2014.  (Quartz)

Markets

Sentiment toward domestic equities is alarmingly positive.  (The Fat Pitch)

A number of commodities have “crashed” post-crisis.  (The Reformed Broker)

On the attraction of MLPs and energy stocks.  (Simon Lack, Alpha Architect)

Strategy

Data mining and the so-called Santa Claus rally.  (Statistical Ideas)

Being a value investor is not easy.  (Alpha Architect)

How extreme views on investing can steer you wrong.  (A Wealth of Common Sense)

A Q&A with Winthrop Smith Jr. author of Catching Lightning in a Bottle: How Merrill Lynch Revolutionized the Financial World.  (Institutional Investor)

Trading

Doing nothing is often the hardest thing for traders.  (Dragonfly Capital)

What to do when your stop is hit.  (Adam Grimes)

Is technology making us worse investors?  (Pragmatic Capitalism)

Companies

Why compare Instagram with Twitter ($TWTR)?  (Slate)

Why American tech companies love Luxembourg.  (FT)

Uber

Why Berkshire Hathaway ($BRKB) should buy Uber.  (Dan Primack)

Baidu ($BIDU) is set to invest in Uber.  (TechCrunch)

Meet a college basketball player who drives for Uber.  (ESPN via @hughesmatt)

Hedge funds

Why are pension funds doubling down on hedge funds?  (Above the Market)

Quant funds seem to have handled the oil and bond markets this year.  (Bloomberg)

Finance

The SEC is taking a closer look at mutual funds holding leveraged loans.  (Dealbook)

A closer look at the standard for insider trading.  (Matt Levine)

Should you lend money to the Lending Club ($LC) crowd?  (Calculated Risk)

The cast of characters on Finance Twitter.  (A Wealth of Common Sense)

Economy

Why are inflation expectations falling in the face of a stronger economy?  (Capital Spectator)

Earlier on Abnormal Returns

Podcast Friday: mistakes happen.  (Abnormal Returns)

Controlling your behavior: ETF edition.  (Abnormal Returns)

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

Mixed media

Why retailers keep sending out catalogs.  (NPR)

Vinyl album sales are up nearly 50% this year.  (WSJ)

NPR Music’s favorite songs of 2014: the app.  (NPR)

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