Excerpt: Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea and the Deep Origins of Consciousness by Peter Godfrey-Smith explores what the octopus “brain” tells us about our own. (Scientific American)
Quote of the Day
"Nike makes some of the best products in the world. Products that you lust after. But you also make a lot of crap. Just get rid of the crappy stuff and focus on the good stuff."
(Steve Jobs)
Chart of the Day
What the relative performance of Wal-Mart ($WMT) vs. the S&P 500 tell us.
Markets
Technology
- Why you should expect to see more tech M&A actiivty. (businessinsider.com)
- Why the technology sector "big 5" is poised for trouble. (smeadcap.com)
Strategy
- There is no single, perfect definition of risk. (awealthofcommonsense.com)
- This is the single biggest mistake investors make. (thefelderreport.com)
- Focused investors often have to say "I don't know." (ericcinnamond.com)
- 50 phrases to run from including "Inflection point." (thereformedbroker.com)
- Investors should "stay in your lane." (fmdcapital.com)
Offers
- This new book, "High Returns from Low Risk: A Remarkable Stock Market Paradox" by Pim van Vliet and Jan de Koning looks right up our alley. (amazon.com)
- Sign up for Audible.com and get two free audiobooks including Edward Thorp's "A Man for All Markets: From Las Vegas to Wall Street, How I Beat the Dealer and the Market." (amazon.com)
- Market Wizard Tony Saliba's new book "Managing Expectations: Driving Profitable Option Trading Outcomes Through Knowledge, Discipline, and Risk Management" is now out. Get a free e-book and audiobook version today. (martinkronicle.com)
Companies
Finance
- High speed traders now dominate Bitcoin trading. (bloomberg.com)
- A short history of ultra-long Treasury bonds in the US. (ftalphaville.ft.com)
Funds
- Outflows from open-end mutual funds were spectacular last year. (theirrelevantinvestor.com)
- Corporate governance is one area where women dominate. (nytimes.com)
Global
Economy
- Homebuilder confidence is still pretty high. (calculatedriskblog.com)
- The President has a lot less control over the economy than commonly thought. (nytimes.com)
- Economics is a lot messier than the textbook version. (sethgodin.typepad.com)
- Why economist should be more like plumbers. (ft.com)
Earlier on Abnormal Returns
- Personal finance links: money personalities. (abnormalreturns.com)
- Research links: risk horizons. (abnormalreturns.com)
- What you missed in our Monday linkfest. (abnormalreturns.com)
- Our January book-related link roundup is decidedly finance-light. (abnormalreturns.com)
- Closing the gender gap in asset management one company at a time. (abnormalreturns.com)
- On the value of "strong opinions, weakly held." (abnormalreturns.com)
- The quality anomaly in the real world. (abnormalreturns.com)