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Quote of the Day
"With all the news of unicorns and IPOs and acquisitions driven by the broader market, teams can fall into a trap to think building a startup into a success is easier for others.
But I can tell you more than 12 years into my career as a venture capitalist, it’s hard. It’s always hard. Even for the ones that make it look easy from the outside."
(Tomasz Tunguz)
Chart of the Day

Gold just ended its 10th longest streak above its 200 day moving average.
Markets
- Every major asset class had a positive return in November 2020. (capitalspectator.com)
- Here are the top 30 stocks in the S&P 500 over the past 30 years. (compoundadvisors.com)
Strategy
- Why you can, and should, ignore anything resembling a year-end outlook piece. (epsilontheory.com)
- People with real, valuable financial insights guard them closely. They don't blast them out on Twitter. (ofdollarsanddata.com)
Crypto
- Why the big banks aren't all that worried about Bitcoin. (bloomberg.com)
- Why this run at new all-time highs for Bitcoin feels different. (nytimes.com)
Apple
- Amazon's ($AMZN) AWS is bringing Apple ($AAPL) Mac Minis to the cloud. (techcrunch.com)
- Apple ($AAPL) is pushing the 'post-PC' era off into the distance. (asymco.com)
- Why is Apple's ($AAPL) M1 chip so darn fast? (erik-engheim.medium.com)
IPOs
- What the IPO pipeline looks like going into 2021. (news.crunchbase.com)
- That Airbnb is even going public in 2020 is remarkable. (thegeneralist.substack.com)
- A skeptical look at the DoorDash S-1. (signalee.com)
Companies
- Slack ($WORK) should have 'won' the pandemic but is likely going to sell to Salesforce ($CRM). (axios.com)
- Startups are starting to tackle the life insurance business as carriers not just agents. (wsj.com)
Finance
- S&P Global ($SPGI) looks less and less like a bond ratings agency. (wsj.com)
- Why scale is so important in the financial data business. (ft.com)
Exchanges
- The big exchange companies are rapidly diversifying away from their core businesses. (ft.com)
- The Nasdaq wants to require listed companies to have diverse boards. (nytimes.com)
Funds
- Bonds vs. bond funds: the pros and cons. (morningstar.com)
- Mutual fund owners are always at-risk of a tax surprise this time of year. (morningstar.com)
Pandemic
- The U.S. response to the pandemic is only as good as its least vigilant states. (propublica.org)
- Sweden continues to walk back some its more controversial pandemic policies. (ft.com)
Housing
- There is a downside to rapid house price appreciation. (housingwire.com)
- Why America's suburbs are likely to get incrementally denser. (noahpinion.substack.com)
Economy
- Tim Duy, "Policy makers and market participants have yet to fully appreciate the magnitude of accumulated savings because the numbers are so large and out of historical context that they are difficult to comprehend." (bloomberg.com)
- Official unemployment numbers are all jacked up in pandemic. (washingtonpost.com)
Earlier on Abnormal Returns
- Research links: behavioral drivers. (abnormalreturns.com)
- What you missed in our Monday linkfest. (abnormalreturns.com)
- Adviser links: a modern twist on SMAs. (abnormalreturns.com)
- Blogging is dead, long live blogging! (abnormalreturns.com)
- Are you a financial adviser looking for some out-of-the-box thinking? Then check out our weekly e-mail newsletter just for advisers. (newsletter.abnormalreturns.com)