Holiday book alert: The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution by Walter Isaacson received multiple recommendations in this Bloomberg survey of notable books.
Quote of the Day
"This is important to keep in mind when thinking about markets or the economy. Because here's the truth: We don't have a very good sample to draw from."
(Morgan Housel)
Markets
- Bitcoin (and the ruble) were awful investments in 2014. (qz.com)
- Options expiration week in December is unusually strong historically. (quantifiableedges.com)
- Wall Street continues to "strip" bonds left and right. (bloomberg.com)
Junk bonds
- Junk bond worries are spreading from the oil patch. (wsj.com)
- The pain in junk bonds is palpable. (crossingwallstreet.com)
- The case for junk bonds. (scottgrannis.blogspot.com)
Strategy
- Is technology speeding market cycles? (awealthofcommonsense.com)
- Investors spend most of their time in a drawdown. (mebfaber.com)
- Drawdowns are the rule not the exception. (theirrelevantinvestor.tumblr.com)
- When to throw in the towel on a stock. (cleareyesinvesting.com)
- Three ways to generate better trading ideas in 2015. (traderfeed.blogspot.com)
Christmas lists
- Michael Lewis' Christmas list for Wall Street includes some doozies. (bloombergview.com)
- A Christmas list for investors. (maliceforall.com)
Apple
- The mystery of Scott Forstall's exit from Apple ($AAPL). (aboveavalon.com)
- Why Apple's e-book appeal is a big deal. (fortune.com)
Finance
- How the ten biggest IPOs of 2014 performed. (qz.com)
- We are entering a period of "feast or famine" for the hedge fund industry. (bloombergview.com)
- The AbbiVie-Shire blow-up was a killer for many hedge funds. (ft.com)
- Citigroup ($C) should be broken up. (baselinescenario.com)
- Are bankers all that dishonest? (statisticalideas.blogspot.com)
Funds
- Checking in on what is going on at Pimco. (wsj.com)
- How to explain ETFs to your Dad. (vanguardblog.com)
Oil
- The dark side of the oil price shock. (blogs.ft.com)
- Oil prices as an indicator of global economic activity. (econbrowser.com)
- Gasoline prices are at a five-year low. (bonddad.blogspot.com)
Global
- Global stock markets are uniformly oversold. (bespokeinvest.com)
- European stocks are not as cheap as you think they are. (gavekal.blogspot.com)
Economy
- November industrial production surged. (capitalspectator.com)
- Homebuilders aren't as optimistic as they used to be. (calculatedriskblog.com)
- Oil prices are clouding Fed thinking. (economistsview.typepad.com)
- America has an infrastructure deficit. (bloombergview.com)
Earlier on Abnormal Returns
- A new edition of weekly academic research links including a look at the history of low vol. (abnormalreturns.com)
- An investment post worth bookmarking for future reference. (abnormalreturns.com)
- Top clicks last week on the site. (abnormalreturns.com)
