Review: Nassim Taleb’s Skin in the Game: Hidden Asymmetries in Daily Life is “grandiose, tendentious and insulting” but entertaining. (FT)
Quote of the Day
"If we compared everything to all other things, we would consider our opportunity costs and all would be well. But we don’t. We compare the item to only one other (sometimes two). This is when relativity can fool us."
(Dan Ariely and Jeff Kreisler)
Chart of the Day

The yield on the 10 year Treasury bond has nearly doubled off the bottom.
Markets
- Small business sentiment data is of little use to investors. (bloomberg.com)
- Is the relative move in emerging markets over? (capitalspectator.com)
- Bond yields have historically risen through May. (topdowncharts.com)
Strategy
- The top 10 high-conviction picks from the ultimate stock pickers. (morningstar.com)
- 3 reasons why you should take what financial pundits say with a big grain of salt. (humbledollar.com)
- Mark Rzepczynski, "(E)ffective due diligence should go beyond the numbers and make an assessment about the personality and character of the hedge fund manager." (mrzepczynski.blogspot.com)
Support
- Love Abnormal Returns? Then like (and follow) us on Facebook. (facebook.com)
- Support this site by grabbing an annual membership to Abnormal Returns. (abnormalreturns.com)
- Stay up-to-date with all of our posts: sign-up for our daily e-mail. (abnormalreturns.com)
Companies
- Farhad Manjoo, "Alexa is spreading so quickly that even Amazon can’t keep track of it." (nytimes.com)
- Can we trust Google ($GOOGL) to create a better web experience? (stratechery.com)
- Om Malik, "Facebook is about making money by keeping us addicted to Facebook. It always has been — and that’s why all of our angst and headlines are not going to change a damn thing." (om.co)
Finance
- JP Morgan ($JPM) is building a new big *ss HQ building. (bloomberg.com)
- These are the seven biggest types of 'asset owners.' (blogs.cfainstitute.org)
Hedge funds
- Hedge funds are bowing to clients' desire for separate accounts. (institutionalinvestor.com)
- Hedge funds could do better with more diversity. (businessinsider.com)
- David Einhorn is experiencing the worst underperformance of his career. (dealbreaker.com)
Kindle deals
- "How We Got to Now: Six Innovations That Made the Modern World" by Steven Johnson is just $1.99 for the Kindle. (amazon.com)
- "The Startup Playbook: Founder-to-Founder Advice From Two Startup Veterans by Rajat Bhargava and Will Herman is just $0.99 for the Kindle. (amazon.com)
- "The Map That Changed the World: William Smith and the Birth of Modern Geology" by Simon Winchester is just $2.99 for the Kindle. (amazon.com)
Economy
- By this measure the Fed still has a ways to go in terms of tightening. (pensionpartners.com)
- Is technology finally set to increase productivity growth? (blogs.wsj.com)
Earlier on Abnormal Returns
- Personal finance links: gross incompetence. (abnormalreturns.com)
- What you missed in our Tuesday linkfest. (abnormalreturns.com)
- Research links: tulip bubble myths. (abnormalreturns.com)