Review: “One is grateful to David Sax [author of The Revenge of Analog] the for mapping the eddies where we might, at least for a moment, find some stillness, respite, and fun.” (NYRB)
Quote of the Day
"As Upton Sinclair said, it’s difficult to persuade even the most intelligent people to accept the evidence if they’re financially incentivised to ignore it."
(Robin Powell)
Markets
- BDCs have crushed it the past twelve months. (valuewalk.com)
- Managed futures returns were meh in April. (mrzepczynski.blogspot.com)
- The world has changed. So have profit margins. (thereformedbroker.com)
Membership
Companies
- How Amazon ($AMZN) dramatically cut their shipping costs. (buzzfeed.com)
- Consumers love their Apple ($AAPL) Airpods. (techpinions.com)
- Twitter ($TWTR) is pushing hard on live video with a lew of new partners. (recode.net)
- Disney's ($DIS) ESPN is not doomed, but it won't look the same going forward. (theatlantic.com)
Finance
- Goldman Sachs ($GS) is pushing into lending. (wsj.com)
- How Harvard Management Company is pulling back from fossil fuel investments. (thecrimson.com)
- Better financial video is coming. (medium.com)
Funds
- The May Mutual Fund Observer is out with a look back at lessons learned at the 2017 Morningstar ($MORN) Investor Conference. (mutualfundobserver.com)
- Why the money management industry needs more gender balance. (institutionalinvestor.com)
New books
- "Invest Like a Guru: How to Generate Higher Returns At Reduced Risk With Value Investing" by Charlie Tian. (amazon.com)
- "Trend Following, 5th Edition: How to Make a Fortune in Bull, Bear and Black Swan Markets" by Michael Covel. (amazon.com)
- "The Money Formula: Dodgy Finance, Pseudo Science, and How Mathematicians Took Over the Markets" by Paul Wilmott and David Orrell. (amazon.com)
- "Adaptive Markets: Financial Evolution at the Speed of Thought" by Andrew Lo. (amazon.com)
Economy
- Federal withholding taxes are going up at a rapid clip. (investors.com)
- Is US productivity growth finally perking up? (ft.com)
- What to believe when confidence and activity are out of sync. (econbrowser.com)
- Why is everybody talking about 'late capitalism'? (theatlantic.com)
Earlier on Abnormal Returns
- Research links: factor picking. (abnormalreturns.com)
- What you missed in our Monday linkfest. (abnormalreturns.com)
- Meet the 69th largest money manager in the world...Apple ($AAPL)! (abnormalreturns.com)
- ETF links: sticky holdings. (abnormalreturns.com)
- What books Abnormal Returns readers most purchased in April 2017. (abnormalreturns.com)
- "Keep ETFs Weird" was a top April read over at the Enterprising Investor blog. (blogs.cfainstitute.org)