Read Michael Lewis’ The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine before they make into a major motion picture with Brad Pitt, Christian Bale and Ryan Gosling. (Slate)
Quote of the Day
"Good investment advice will always sound the best and make the most sense when looking back at the past or planning ahead for the future. It will rarely sound so great in the moment when you actually have to use it."
(Ben Carlson)
Chart of the Day

The story of the week was the decision by the SNB to abandon its peg to the Euro.
Markets
- Markets are looking to earnings reports for any sign that the economy has weakened. (dashofinsight.com)
- The market is awash in new highs (and new lows). (jlfmi.tumblr.com)
Strategy
- On the value of "structured exercise in pattern recognition." (traderfeed.blogspot.com)
- Some lessons learned about hedge fund allocations from the financial crisis. (ladyfohf.tumblr.com)
- When in doubt avoid leverage. (pragcap.com)
Companies
- Companies are still pretty optimistic about the economy. (avondaleam.com)
- Are your companies prepared for the next bear market? (cleareyesinvesting.com)
- Check out the long-term decline in S&P 500 leverage. (stefancheplick.tumblr.com)
Forex
- No one was ever supposed to lose this much (this fast) in the Swiss franc. (bloombergview.com)
- The action in the Swiss franc is going to bring more regulatory attention to the retail forex market. (wsj.com)
- Even before this week retail forex traders were on average money losers. (blogs.wsj.com)
- Tales from a bank forex desk. (maliceforall.com)
Funds
Global
- The Swiss economy is in for tougher times ahead. (soberlook.com)
- Why Euro QE is unlikely to work. (marginalrevolution.com)
- Making sense of the Swiss shock. (project-syndicate.org)
Economy
- How the Yellen Fed differs from the Bernanke Fed. (csen.tumblr.com)
- Still no signs of inflation in December. (calculatedriskblog.com)
- A look back at the week's positive (and negative) events. (ritholtz.com)
- The economic schedule for the coming week. (calculatedriskblog.com)
Earlier on Abnormal Returns
- Top clicks this week on the site. (abnormalreturns.com)
- What you may have missed in our Saturday linkfest. (abnormalreturns.com)