Book review: The Devil’s Financial Dictionary by Jason Zweig is “just a sheer delight.” (ETF)
Quote of the Day
"There is no natural source of alpha, or risk-adjusted outperformance. In other words, if I’m an active manager, the only way I can have a positive alpha, is if someone else has a negative alpha."
(Craig Lazzara)
Chart of the Day
Weird things are happening in financial markets including negative swap spreads.
Markets
- $VIX volatility has compressed. Time for another big move? (athrasher.com)
- The US dollar is really, really overbought. (marketwatch.com)
Strategy
- Gold miners are a trade never an investment. (bloombergview.com)
- The hold your nose case for coal stocks. (mebfaber.com)
- Michael Batnick, "Most investors don’t want to be told to expect average returns. Who wants to be average?" (theirrelevantinvestor.wordpress.com)
Offers
- Try Audible.com and two free audiobooks including John Kay's "Other People's Money: The Real Business of Finance." (amazon.com)
- Get Karma Go from @yourKarma. Take WiFi with you everywhere. Use my code for $10 off yours. (yourkarma.com)
Netflix
- Cable companies are running scared of Netflix ($NFLX). (businessinsider.com)
- Netflix ($NFLX) is becoming more like a studio. (wired.com)
- No matter how you slice it Netflix ($NFLX) stock is expensive. (charlessizemore.com)
Companies
- What is the value of Valeant Pharmaceuticals ($VRX) as a going concern? (aswathdamodaran.blogspot.com)
- Apple ($AAPL) is planning a peer-to-peer payment service. (nytimes.com)
- How big can Amazon ($AMZN) Web Services get? (blogs.barrons.com)
Finance
- Leveraged loan issuance has fallen. (bloomberg.com)
- Morgan Stanley ($MS) wants to get more bank-like. (businessinsider.com)
Funds
- Are there too many private investment funds? (awealthofcommonsense.com)
- Fidelity has cut its value of much of its private share portfolio. (fortune.com)
Global
Economy
- Weekly initial unemployment claims are trending at historically low levels. (calculatedriskblog.com)
- Job openings are not translating into hires. (bonddad.blogspot.com)
Earlier on Abnormal Returns
- Longform links: the democratization of finance. (abnormalreturns.com)
- The latest edition of Essential Listening over at Enterprising Investor with podcasts on quant investing and alternative assets. (blogs.cfainstitute.org)
- What you may have missed in our Wednesday linkfest. (abnormalreturns.com)
