Book notes: Vitaliy Katsenelson writes Guy Spier’s The Education of a Value Investor is “one of the best books I’ve read in 2015.” (Institutional Investor)
Quote of the Day
"There are times when stock prices are so high that even modest concerns can shake them, such as the 1987 and 2000-02 sell-offs. I don’t believe that today is one of those times."
(John Rekenthaler)
Chart of the Day

The technology and consumer discretionary stocks have had a good run of late.
Commodities
- A lot of traders have piled into silver. (shortsideoflong.com)
- The case for a new bull market in sugar. (martinkronicle.com)
- Making the case for a bottom in oil (valueplays.net)
Strategy
- Don't outsource your research to third parties. (valueandopportunity.com)
- Where's the replacement for the 60/40 portfolio? (institutionalinvestor.com)
Offers
- Sign up for a free trial from Audible.com and get two free audiobooks like "Superforecasting: The Art and Science of Prediction." (amazon.com)
- Modern Trader Magazine—the essential journal for professional traders and active investors. Check out this special subscription offer including a free investment classic! (moderntrader.com)
Companies
- Why Pfizer ($PFE) is interested in Allergan ($AGN): taxes. (nytimes.com)
- Google ($GOOG) is going to fold Android with ChromeOS. (wsj.com)
HFT
- A asset manager-backed dark pool, Luminex, is set to launch absent HFTs. (wsj.com)
- Exchanges could slow down the HFTs...if they wanted to. (bloombergview.com)
- A small number of HFT firms dominate cash Treasury trading. (contrariancorner.com)
ETFs
- Mutual funds are having a hard time valuing their stakes in private companies. (wsj.com)
- WisdomTree ($WETF) is buying the GreenHaven commodity ETFs. (blogs.barrons.com)
- Cap-weighted index funds aren't perfect. What is the alternative? (canadiancouchpotato.com)
Global
- Just how big is China's non-performing loan problem? (ftalphaville.ft.com)
- Why China is abandoning its one-child only policy. (washingtonpost.com)
Economy
Earlier on Abnormal Returns
- Podcast links: spousal economics. (abnormalreturns.com)
- What you may have missed in our Thursday linkfest. (abnormalreturns.com)
- A "Superforecasting: The Art and Science of Prediction." linkfest. (abnormalreturns.com)
- Strategic apathy and the mediocre investor. (abnormalreturns.com)
- My latest edition of "Essential Listening" up at the Enterprising Investor blog with a look at Yahoo ($YHOO) management and the post-smartphone era. (blogs.cfainstitute.org)
- A round-up of all our book-related posts over the past month. (abnormalreturns.com)