Quote of the day

Brian Portnoy, “Never forget: Doing nothing is one of the most under-appreciated skills in investing.”  (The Investor’s Paradox)

Video of the day

Tobias Carlisle author of Deep Value: Why Activist Investors and Other Contrarians Battle for Control of Losing Corporations talks with Tom Keene about avoiding value traps.  (Bloomberg)

US vs. the World

What markets are NOT at new all-time highs.  (A Wealth of Common Sense)

The US stock market has been a standout.  (Short Side of Long)

Stop focusing on CAPE. Other measures show the same story.  (Meb Faber)

Strategy

Portfolio size necessarily affects the ability to generate alpha.  (Alpha Architect)

Moving beyond volatility: four sources of risk.  (Rekenthaler Report)

Academics are discovering the value of trend following.  (Humble Student)

Analysts

How forthrightness makes decision making easier.  (Enterprising Investor)

A nice review for Tom Brakke’s Letters to a Young Analyst.  (Reading the Markets)

One important lesson learned from Guy Spier’s The Education of a Value Investor: My Transformative Quest for Wealth, Wisdom, and Enlightenment.  (Farnam Street)

Food

Where McDonald’s ($MCD) is losing ground with customers.  (Businessweek, Chris Nichols)

Why your drive through experience is slowing down.  (Fast Company via @hughesmatt)

Finance

Where did all the LBOs go?  (Business Insider)

There is a talent bottleneck in the big investment banks.  (FT)

Why is Mario Gabelli the highest paid CEO on Wall Street?  (CNBC)

Global

What the eurozone got wrong about the Great Recession.  (Business Insider)

Economy

Fed officials are facing the point in the cycle where uncertainty is at is maximum.  (Tim Duy)

Small business optimism is trending higher.  (Calculated Risk)

The cost to American homeowners by not refinancing.  (Bloomberg View)

Earlier on Abnormal Returns

What you might have missed in our Monday linkfest.  (Abnormal Returns)

Mixed media

Every three minutes a worker’s phone gets remotely wiped by her employer.  (WSJ.D)

Five things CNBC could do to increase viewership.  (Marketwatch)

Nicholas Carr, “Bring back personal blogs. Bring back RSS. Bring back the fun. Screw Big Internet.”  (Rough Type)

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