Cool stuff for the holidays:  Gregory Zuckerman’s The Frackers: The Outrageous Inside Story of New Billionaire Wildcatters.

Quote of the day

Albert Edwards, “I have never seen the sell-side predict a recession. There are a number of reasons for that but key among them is the personal career risk of calling a recession and being wrong.”  (Buttonwood’s notebook)

Chart of the day

HFRISDI_1113

Is trend following broken?  (Economist)

Markets

The Brent-WTI spread is blowing out again.  (Sober Look, FT Alphaville)

Copper is doing nothing.  (BCA Research)

Owning retailers in December has been a losing trade historically.  (Humble Student)

When investment bigshots get too cute by half.  (Institutional Imperative contra The Reformed Broker)

Strategy

Why don’t investors take advantage when stocks are on sale?  (Brett Arends)

Investors, keep a trading log.  (Your Wealth Effect)

How to take the long view.  (Aleph Blog)

Companies

Is Apple ($AAPL) ever going to make a play for the living room?  (FT)

Is Apple’s new headquarters building a big mistake?  (Bloomberg)

How Solar City ($SCTY) and Tesla ($TSLA) will disrupt the utilities.  (Quartz)

This Indian company is turning a profit recycling your e-waste.  (Quartz)

Finance

Banks are tightening the reins on the use of trader chat rooms.  (Bloomberg)

Why aren’t institutional investors more aggressive on corporate governance issues?  (IndexUniverse contra Dealbook)

The reinsurance business has become a crowded trade.  (Cassandra Does Tokyo)

Funds

Meet a manger who has over 50% of his fund in cash.  (Focus on Funds)

Five thoughts on the bond market (and funds).  (Rekenthaler Report)

Can DFA crack the 401(k) market?  (Forbes)

The two John Bogles approach investing very differently.  (WSJ)

Global

Brazil is deep into a monetary tightening cycle.  (FT)

How Poland became Europe’s most dynamic economy.  (Businessweek, beyondbrics)

Netherlands catches a downgrade from AAA.  (MoneyBeat)

Economy

It’s hard to see how retail sales exceed expectations this holiday season.  (Sober Look)

Eleven economic lessons from Black Friday shopping.  (The Atlantic)

Just how much would a rise in the minimum wage do for workers?  (Businessweek)

Earlier on Abnormal Returns

What you may have missed in our Wednesday linkfest.  (Abnormal Returns)

Stuff

Apple Pages beats Microsoft ($MSFT) Word.  (NYTimes)

Sony’s PS4 vs. Microsoft’s XBox One: a tale of the tape.  (ArsTechnica, GigaOM)

This may be the best keyboard for your iPad Air.  (TUAW)

Mixed media

A computer science class, CS50, has become a bit hit with Harvard undergraduates.  (Boston Globe via @cdixon)

You can’t generate peak performance without a healthy mind and body.  (Tony Schwartz)

Everything is amazing and nobody is happy.  (Morgan Housel)

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