Review: Brad Stone’s The Upstarts: How Uber, Airbnb, and the Killer Companies of the New Silicon Valley Are Changing the World is a “fun, briskly told narrative.” (WSJ)
Quote of the Day
"Companies, and their leaders, may feel compelled to speak out on American policy as American citizens, precisely because they are citizens of the global economy."
(Daniel Gross)
Markets
- The stock market has been remarkably calm. (crossingwallstreet.com)
- The capital markets don't necessarily 'play politics.' (thereformedbroker.com)
Strategy
- If Ed Thorp thinks markets are tough to beat, then what chance do you have? (theirrelevantinvestor.com)
- Every investor, no matter how small, can execute a viable asset allocation strategy. (ofdollarsanddata.com)
- The best traders experiment. (smbtraining.com)
Offers
- Sign up for an Audible.com free trial and get Ed Thorp's "A Man for All Markets: From Las Vegas to Wall Street, How I Beat the Dealer and the Market" for free. (amazon.com)
- Robert Cialdini's first (classic) book "Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion" is just $1.99 for the Kindle. (amazon.com)
- Sign up for a free trial to HBO at Amazon Video so you can watch the new 'Becoming Warren Buffett' documentary. (amazon.com)
Companies
- Microsoft ($MSFT) borrowed $17 billion yesterday. (ft.com)
- Under Armour's ($UA) business has hit a pothole. (businessinsider.com)
Retail
- Wal-Mart ($WMT) is targeting Amazon ($AMZN) directly with a free shipping offer. (recode.net)
- Subscription models are the future. (techradar.com)
- Free shipping induces higher returns. (papers.ssrn.com)
- Robots are a "new and powerful distribution channel between consumers and businesses." (bigthink.com)
Finance
Funds
- Large growth, European stocks and Mid-cap growth experienced the largest outflows last year. (beta.morningstar.com)
- Just because two ETFs have similar names doesn't mean they will perform alike. (etf.com)
Economy
- Home prices increased at a 5.6% rate through November. (calculatedriskblog.com)
- Consumer spending is economy's bright spot. (capitalspectator.com)
- Why you shouldn't worry about the Fed's balance sheet. (bloomberg.com)
- Factory jobs increasingly require higher education. (nytimes.com)
Earlier on Abnormal Returns
- A look at the 2016 EOY FinTwit league table. (twitter.com)
- Research links: avoiding cash. (abnormalreturns.com)
- What you missed in our Monday linkfest. (abnormalreturns.com)
- ETF links: not-so heavily traded. (abnormalreturns.com)
- Financial forecasts and our limited cognitive resources. (abnormalreturns.com)
Mixed media
- Guidance for an aspiring behavioral expert. (dpegan.com)
- Thinking about quitting a job? Maybe you should take a 'pause' instead. (nytimes.com)
- Five tips to improve your LinkedIn profile. (blogs.cfainstitute.org)
- How to beat job search burnout. (fastcompany.com)
- Important lessons learned from other people's jobs. (collaborativefund.com)