Book review: Why being a central banker is so difficult these days. Insights from Mohamed El-Erian’s The Only Game in Town: Central Banks, Instability and Avoiding the Next Collapse. (FT)
Quote of the Day
"(W)e are a long way from the quiet despair that has so often been a sign that stocks have finally reached bargain prices."
(Jason Zweig)
Chart of the Day

The percentage of S&P 500 stocks below their 50 day moving average is at a significant oversold level. (via @JackDamn)
Strategy
- Don't look to the Fed to bail out this market. (dashofinsight.com)
- Why pessimism always sounds smarter. (fool.com)
- Brett Steenbarger, "The single step that traders and investors can take to turn their psychology around is to gauge themselves by the right yardsticks." (forbes.com)
- Focus on process, not outcomes. (washingtonpost.com)
Offers
- Tax time is rapidly approaching. Get up to 40% off TurboTax at Amazon. (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)
- Sign up for an Audible.com free trial and get two audio books including "Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World." (amazon.com)
Companies
- Is hotel consolidation the key to competing against Airbnb? (wsj.com)
- How Starbucks ($SBUX) won the holiday season. (washingtonpost.com)
- The credit risk pipeline MLPs face from their E&P customers. (sl-advisors.com)
- The app economy is changing, big time. (wired.com)
Finance
Global
- Why you shouldn't fear the drop in the Baltic Dry Index. (next.ft.com)
- Remember 'Peak Oil'? (arnoldkling.com)
Economy
- A succinct summary of the economic week. (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)
- 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)