Listen to: Erik Brynjolfsson talk with Russ Roberts about his book The Second Machine Age: Work, Progress, and Prosperity in a Time of Brilliant Technologies on EconTalk.

Quote of the day

Charles Kirk, “Remember, having more input is not necessarily good and that’s especially true when the market becomes emotional and the media right along with it to sell advertising.”  (Kirk Report)

Chart of the day

EYHY_0214

Check out the spread between stocks and high yield bonds.  (BCA Research)

Markets

Is Japan over?  (The Reformed Broker, Market Anthropology, Bonddad Blog)

Bullish sentiment has turned tail.  (Bespoke)

Signs of a (relative) turn in emerging markets.  (Andrew Thrasher)

Strategy

On the “fat pitch” myth.  (Pragmatic Capitalism)

In praise of simple investments.  (Aleph Blog)

Weighing the benefits of tax-loss harvesting.  (Allan Roth)

What happens if you only dollar cost average in down markets?  (Systematic Relative Strength)

Companies

What you can learn about investing at the mall.  (Vitaliy Katsenelson)

When news pushes aside fundamentals: the case of Green Mountain Roasters ($GMCR).  (Herb Greenberg)

Why does AOL ($AOL) want to nickel and dime employees on 401(k) plans?  (Focus on Funds)

Technology

Twitter’s ($TWTR) first earnings report was nothing to behold.  (MoneyBeat, FT Alphaville, WSJ, FT, Bloomberg)

Does Apple ($AAPL) have a nostalgia problem?  (New Yorker)

An Apple growth scorecard.  (Asymco)

What role will Bill Gates play in the new Microsoft ($MSFT)?  (stratechery)

Does Eric Schmidt of Google ($GOOG) deserve a $100 million bonus?  (Valleywag)

Finance

The number of listed companies is on the rise once again.  (WSJ)

Checking in on Warren Buffett’s hedge fund bet.  (Fortune, Pragmatic Capitalism)

Private equity firms are buying debt not companies any more.  (Bloomberg)

The window for dividend recaps is still wide open.   (MoneyBeat)

Bank forex traders are a dying breed.  (WSJ, Quartz)

Funds

Schwab is rolling out an all ETF 401(k) plan.  (ETF)

How Morningstar categorizes mutual funds.  (Rekenthaler Report)

ETF statistics for January 2014.  (Invest with an Edge)

Global

Why the ECB should venture into unconventional territory.  (Gavyn Davies)

Don’t count on Russia’s stock market getting an Olympic boost.  (Brett Arends)

Economy

Weekly initial unemployment claims are trending lower.  (Bespoke, Calculated Risk)

A January employment report preview.  (Calculated Risk)

1 in 6 American men between the ages of 25-54 are not working.  (WSJ)

Earlier on Abnormal Returns

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

Bitcoin

How to fix Bitcoin.  (The Atlantic)

Bitcoin is growing up fast.  (FT)

Mixed media

Is the business news for investors or citizens?  (The Reformed Broker)

Entrepreneurs let informal dress bleed into informal thinking. (Seeing Both Sides via @mattermark)

France loves hamburgers.  (FT)

You can support Abnormal Returns by visiting Amazon. You can also follow us on StockTwits and Twitter.

More Posts This Week

This content, which contains security-related opinions and/or information, is provided for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon in any manner as professional advice, or an endorsement of any practices, products or services. There can be no guarantees or assurances that the views expressed here will be applicable for any particular facts or circumstances, and should not be relied upon in any manner. You should consult your own advisers as to legal, business, tax, and other related matters concerning any investment.

The commentary in this “post” (including any related blog, podcasts, videos, and social media) reflects the personal opinions, viewpoints, and analyses of the Ritholtz Wealth Management employees providing such comments, and should not be regarded the views of Ritholtz Wealth Management LLC. or its respective affiliates or as a description of advisory services provided by Ritholtz Wealth Management or performance returns of any Ritholtz Wealth Management Investments client.

References to any securities or digital assets, or performance data, are for illustrative purposes only and do not constitute an investment recommendation or offer to provide investment advisory services. Charts and graphs provided within are for informational purposes solely and should not be relied upon when making any investment decision. Past performance is not indicative of future results. The content speaks only as of the date indicated. Any projections, estimates, forecasts, targets, prospects, and/or opinions expressed in these materials are subject to change without notice and may differ or be contrary to opinions expressed by others.

Please see disclosures here.

Please see the Terms & Conditions page for a full disclaimer.