Why the 200 day moving average matters.  (Crossing Wall Street)

Historical market volatility is still above historical averages, but is way down from the peak.  (Bespoke, ibid)

“I don’t particularly believe in the whole green shoots blather. But I really don’t let it affect my trading. If the market wants to discount better days ahead, who am I to argue?”  (Daily Options Report)

TIPS are coming back to the fore.  (WSJ also Capital Spectator)

Inflation hedges for regular people.  (ROI and market folly)

“Pimco’s launch should be a big wake-up call to ETF investors.”  (IndexUniverse also WSJ)

Speaking of ETF competition, Old Mutual fund is jumping into the ETF game taking on Vanguard directly.  (IndexUniverse)

The bottom line for hedge funds:  “Be small and young or large and old.”  (All About Alpha)

Distressed debt has had a good year, in five months.  (NYTimes)

Raptor Capital Management is closing.  (WSJ, market folly, DealBook)

Does anyone really believe the uptick rule actually serves a purpose?  (Clusterstock)

Why Bill Ackman failed in his campaign against Target (TGT) management.  (TheStreet)

A (rareish) interview with Paul Tudor Jones.  (Institutional Investor via The Reformed Broker)

Nassim Taleb’s money management track record is now fair game.  (Clusterstock)

China and “global liquidity” are holding commodity prices high amidst an economic downturn.  (WSJ)

“To those who really fear a China [Treasury] sell-off, my challenge is to show me hard evidence that its happening.”  (Accrued Interest)

“The market in interest-rate swaps is enormous — orders of magnitude greater than the market in credit default swaps — and, like most markets, it’s done some pretty crazy things over the past year…”  (Felix Salmon)

California muni bondholders are getting nervous.  (Money & Co.)

Whitney Tilson on the end of the subprime mortgage crisis and the beginning of the Alt-A crisis.  (ValuePlays)

“The housing crisis has given us a rare opportunity to re-evaluate and re-invent the American Dream.”  (Huffington Post)

“Nearly all of the housing series are flawed with significant discontinuities or conceptual problems.  No matter what the data report, there will be plenty of opportunity for pundits to dispute the results for the next year or so.”  (A Dash of Insight)

“Banks are having an easy time dialing for dollars.”  Is that such a good thing?  (WSJ, Clusterstock)

Are we better off with a pack of bank regulators or one regulator to rule them all?  (Breakingviews)

Yet another example of Congress rolling over for the banks.  (Big Picture)

It looks like Australia is going to sidestep a technical recession.  (EconomPic Data)

In the context of hurricane forecasting, what constitutes a good forecast?  (Caveman Forecaster)

“..most people have great difficulty understanding exponential processes.”  Like economic growth.  (Marginal Revolution also EconLog)

How do economists who teach in business schools differ from those who teach in economics departments?  (Mankiw Blog)

Daniel Gross talks with Barry Ritholtz about Bailout Nation.  (The Big Money)

Does every one really want a smart phone?  (24/7 Wall St.)

Please. Don’t. Ruin. Wall Street 2.  (The Reformed Broker also DealBreaker, market folly)

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