Book review: The Confidence Game: Why We Fall For It…Every Time by Maria Konnikova is a “gem of a book.” (Brain Drain)
Quote of the Day
"Should you ever listen to pessimists? Of course. They're the best indication of what's unsustainable, and thus probably about to change, and thus the soil of what's to be optimistic about."
(Morgan Housel)
Markets
- Newsletter writers are still not bearish enough. (marketwatch.com)
- Why isn't the $VIX higher? (schaeffersresearch.com)
- Oil is down 71% over the past two years. (bespokepremium.com)
Strategy
- Why you will never see another Soros or Buffett again. (marketwatch.com)
- You can't avoid every market dip. (fmdcapital.com)
Offers
- Tax time is rapidly approaching. Get up to 40% off TurboTax at Amazon. (amazon.com)
- Sign up for an Audible.com free trial and get two audio books including "Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World." (amazon.com)
- Amazon series, like "Mozart in the Jungle," won more Golden Globes than Netflix. Check them all out with a 30-day Prime trial. (amazon.com)
Companies
Apple
- Swiss watch makers should mock the Apple ($AAPL) Watch at their own risk. (bloomberg.com)
- Why Apple ($AAPL) assembles the Mac Pro in the US. (daringfireball.net)
- Google ($GOOG) paid Apple ($AAPL) $1 billion to stay as the default search engine on the iPhone. (mashable.com)
- What the Apple ($AAPL) Watch 2 needs to succeed. (macworld.com)
Finance
- Wall Street loves proprietary indices. Investors shouldn't. (bloomberg.com)
- Why individual investors should steer clear of IPOs. (thereformedbroker.com)
- Blackstone Group ($BX) has gotten bigger in part because banks have gotten smaller. (wsj.com)
Funds
Economy
- The Chicago Fed National Activity Index was positive in December. (calculatedriskblog.com)
- No one really knows what is going on with inflation. (marginalrevolution.com)
- Econ 101 needs to focus more on data-driven results. (noahpinionblog.blogspot.com)
Earlier on Abnormal Returns
- Podcast links: investor behavior. (abnormalreturns.com)
- What you may have missed in our Thursday linkfest. (abnormalreturns.com)
- The illiquidity premium is only available to those already liquid. (abnormalreturns.com)
- Our January book-related link round-up is up including looks at Maria Konnikova’s "The Confidence Game: Why We Fall For It…Every Time." (abnormalreturns.com)
- A new Essential Listening is up featuring podcasts on behavioral economics, how con men work and the death of the banana. (blogs.cfainstitute.org)
