‘Tis the season. Ben Carlson at A Wealth of Common Sense ranks Abnormal Returns: Winning Strategies from the Frontlines of the Investment Blogosphere as one of the “best books I’ve read in 2013.”

Quote of the day

Felix Salmon, “Art is not an investment in the way that the S&P 500 is, and all direct comparisons of the two have a way of invidiously changing the way we look at and think about art in general.”  (Reuters)

Chart of the day

1YP_1213

2013 was a year of divergent asset class performance.  (The Short Side of Long)

Video of the day

Consuelo Mack talks with Winthrop H. Smith Jr. author of Catching Lightning in a Bottle: How Merrill Lynch Revolutionized the Financial World.  (Wealthtrack)

Markets

The 2-10 year Treasury spread is at two-year highs.  (Crossing Wall Street)

Two looks at corporate profits.  (Systematic Relative Strength, Dr. Ed’s Blog)

Beware pundits who blame the Fed for their woes.  (A Dash of Insight)

Strategy

What lessons will investors take from 2013?  (The Reformed Broker)

Lower correlations should be a boon for stockpickers.  (John Authers)

A look at Peter Sanders’ All About Low Volatility Investing: The Easy Way to Get Started.  (Reading the Markets)

Hedge funds

Five reasons why hedge funds underperform.  (Bloomberg)

Hedge fund investors are not getting their money’s worth.  (IndexUniverse)

Historical hedge fund performance numbers are largely irrelevant.  (FT Alphaville, ibid)

Finance

Off-exchange trading continues to take share from exchanges.  (WSJ)

Odd-lot trading volume is coming out of the shadows.  (MoneyBeat)

Banks are wondering what to do with their commodity businesses.  (Breakingviews)

Nobody reads 10-Qs any more: the Barnes & Noble ($BKS) edition.  (Kid Dynamite)

ETFs

‘Tis the season to shop for closed-end funds at a discount.  (Chuck Jaffe)

Money managers are waiting for SEC to approve non-transparent mechanisms to enter the ETF business.  (FT)

Fidelity is pushing back on fees.  (InvestmentNews)

Global

Unemployment in Europe is still a disaster.  (Pragmatic Capitalism)

Europe has an inflation problem.  (Gavyn Davies)

Chinese commodity demand has been offset by increased supply.  (WSJ)

Commodity testing is getting granular, DNA-level granular.  (WSJ)

Economy

The US is now a chemical export powerhouse.  (FT)

Wage growth is the missing link in the economic recovery.  (Economic Musings)

Why has labor’s share of income declined in advanced economies?  (Noahpinion)

Earlier on Abnormal Returns

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

Mixed media

Ten statistics on what makes for Twitter engagement.  (Fast Company)

Will “social IPOs” become a thing?  (CNNMoney)

Can you actually save money with a $2500 coffee machine?  (DailyFinance)

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