Author Archive

• Sunday links: strategic defaults
  Abnormal Returns, | January 24th, 2010 at 11:26 am

  

  Next week should be a busy one for the markets.  Get ready now.  (A Dash of Insight)

  More oversold readings.  (Bespoke, Chart.ly)

  The state of investor sentiment at week-end.  (Trader’s Narrative, The Technical Take)

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• Friday links: emerging overvaluation
  Abnormal Returns, | January 22nd, 2010 at 12:52 pm

  

  Emerging markets are “no longer cheap.”  (Capital Spectator)

  In the short-term the market seems a bit stretched on the downside.  (Quantifiable Edges also Bespoke)

  What the huge move down in junk bond spreads tells us about risk-taking these days.  (Credit Writedowns)

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• ETF industry growth illustrated
  Abnormal Returns, | January 22nd, 2010 at 7:56 am

  

  In another edition of infrequent “charts that need no further explanation” one can see below a chart from The Economist documenting the growth in the number of and assets under management by the global exchange traded fund industry.

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• Thursday links: unbiased industriousness
  Abnormal Returns, | January 21st, 2010 at 2:34 pm

  

  Apparently Dr. Copper’s PhD is legit.  (Crossing Wall Street)

  How Vanguard won the past decade.  (Morningstar)

  Junky, i.e. low price-to-book value, banks catch a bid.  (The Money Game)

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• Monday links: MAVIN mavens
  Abnormal Returns, | January 18th, 2010 at 12:02 pm

  

  How to invest in the MAVINS.  (The Money Game)

  What constitutes a frontier market these days?  (The Reformed Broker)

  The panelists in the annual Barron’s Roundtable is uniformly bullish.  (The Money Game)

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• Sunday links: net-net-net returns
  Abnormal Returns, | January 17th, 2010 at 11:19 am

  

  How simply coining the term ‘BRICs’ has “redrawn powerbrokers’ cognitive map.”  (FT via Clusterstock)

  Two looks at the scope of the current market rally.  (The Pragmatic Capitalist, Discipline Approach to Investing)

  What is a reasonable expectation for net-net-net (of inflation, expenses and taxes) returns?  (WSJ)

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• Friday links: black box blues
  Abnormal Returns, | January 15th, 2010 at 1:01 pm

  

  Charles Kirk, “In my experience, usually the things we fear the most are the things that impact the market the least. I’ve seen this happen time and time again.”  (Kirk Report)

  The “pub power” indicator has turned negative for the stock market.  (EconomPic Data)

  Quantitative hedge funds seem to outpeform their qualitative cousins.  (CXO Advisory Group)

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• Thursday links: skewed returns
  Abnormal Returns, | January 14th, 2010 at 1:14 pm

  

  The Dow hit its bull market high ten years ago today.  (Crossing Wall Street)

  Since the collapse of Lehman Bros. preferred stocks have outperformed high yield bonds and the S&P 500.  (Bespoke also Don Fishback)

  An indicator pointing to still higher stock prices.  (Trader’s Narrative)

  Jeff Miller, “There is a widespread feeling that the “easy money” was made last year. In fact, we actually just got back to square one.”  (A Dash of Insight)

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• Wednesday links: TBTF taxes
  Abnormal Returns, | January 13th, 2010 at 2:48 pm

  

  What a sub-250 bp Baa-Treasury spread means for the stock market.  (Crossing Wall Street)

  Watching the reversal in the VIX.  (FT Alphaville, Daily Options Report)

  Sometimes big trades have no information value.  (Options for Rookies)

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• Tuesday links: short suffering
  Abnormal Returns, | January 12th, 2010 at 1:30 pm

  

  John Carney, “Warren Buffet has consistently beaten the market with an annualized rate of return of around 22%. You cannot do this, especially not by mimicking what you think you know about Buffett’s strategy.”  (The Money Game)

  A longer-term look at what Rydex market timers are doing.  (The Technical Take)

  Should we care about a sub-18 VIX?  (Bespoke, Options Zone)

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• Monday links: equity demand
  Abnormal Returns, | January 11th, 2010 at 1:13 pm

  

  And you thought the rally in equities was impressive.  Check out corporate bonds.  (Bespoke)

  Have individual investors permanently changed their demand for equities?  (The Globe and Mail)

  Some 85% of S&P 500 stocks are trading above their 50-day moving average.  (The Pragmatic Capitalist)

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• Sunday links: dividend dearth
  Abnormal Returns, | January 10th, 2010 at 12:36 pm

  

  Dividends fell off a cliff in 2009.  Can we expect a bounce in 2010?  (Floyd Norris)

  Dividend policies shouldn’t matter.  But they do.  (The Psy-Fi Blog)

  By this measure the market stands right at fair value.  (Trader’s Narrative)

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• Friday links: hedge fund letdown
  Abnormal Returns, | January 8th, 2010 at 1:20 pm

  

  Hedge funds matched broad market averages in 2009.  Many are not impressed. (FINalternatives,Clusterstock, DailyFinance, EconomPic Data)

  Are earnings estimates too high?  (The Pragmatic Capitalist)

  More on the evidence that individual investors have reloaded on equities.  (Sentiment’s Edge)

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• Check into checklists for investing
  Abnormal Returns, | January 7th, 2010 at 2:47 pm

  

  Checklists are now all the rage of late due in large part to the debt of physician/author Atul Gawande’s new book The Checklist Manifesto.  Steven D. Levitt at  Freakonomics and Heidi Moore in the FT have recently and favorably reviewed the book.  We have to admit we have not read the book but would like to some point.  This is due in part because checklists can be a useful tool for investors and traders alike.

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• Wednesday links: measuring fear
  Abnormal Returns, | January 6th, 2010 at 1:59 pm

  

  Forget the BRICs.  The MAVINs are where it is at for the next decade.  (The Money Game also Trader’s Narrative)

  The mutual fund business is rapidly changing as ETFs continue to take a chunk of their business away.  (WSJ, ibid, Morningstar)

  Hedge fund firms, including AQR, continue to embrace mutual funds as a way of diversifying their businesses.  (WSJ)

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