Weekend Wrap Up

Add weatherman to the list of prognosticators (including economists and strategists) who often get it wrong. Despite the forecasts for a rainy weekend in the Northeast, the weather is glorious, and (as of Saturday morning) I’m hitting the beach — before the weathermen end up being right after all.

Before I run, there are a few fascinating stories worth pursuing — print ‘em out, they make for good beach reading!

ETF Lab
The Stock Trader’s Almanac has created an interesting new feature:  the Almanac Investor ETF Lab. They will be chronicling the developments and tracking the growth of the ETF universe.

Jeff Hirsch was kind enough to give me permission to post the first installment of this (PDF), which you can download for free. (Stock Trader’s Almanac is by subscription).  Their dissection of the universe of ETFs by sector, trading volume, market cap and performance is terrific. Fascinating stuff.

Half of New Jobs Are Real Estate Related
I’ll bet that title got your attention? Its barely an exaggeration: From the end of 2001 recession until April 2005, 43% of new private sector jobs were housing industry related, according to Northern Trust. From 2001 to the start of the rate hiking cycle, it was over half.  Pick your jaw up off the desk and go read all the details.

• Quite a few Hedge fund stories this week: 
First, the WSJ and the NYT look at each side of the coin of hedge funds. The Journal looks at the Demand for funds, while the Times explains why the Supply is there. (If you lack access to either, go here).

• Hedge fund Performance Numbers: 
Two looks — One from Barron’s, which notes the relative weak fund performance as of late . The second, from Cogent Hedge, which provides an interesting table chock full of data on style (and sub-style) performances. (Same routine: click here).   

•  Prediction markets:
Readers know I have reservations about placing too much trust into things like Tradesports and IEM. But if you want to start researching Prediction Markets, you can’t do better than Chris Masse’s prediction market vortal. Enormous amounts of data and links on the subject.

•  Blogs blogs blogs:
You may be sick of hearing about them, but I suspect the top ain’t in yet. A (free) WSJ story discusses why Measuring the Impact of Blogs Requires More Than Counting is worth a few minutes, C/Net asks whether Blogs are the next big thing for advertisers

The Greenspan Conundrum 
John Mauldin has some choice words for the Fed chair. I do not think he and the Chai see eye to eye on inflation, bubbles and the like. So too for Jim Jubak, who notes that The Fed Is All Wrong About Inflation.

• Wonk Heaven:
Finally, the policy wonks out there might like to read the most recent remarks by Vice Chairman Roger W. Ferguson, Jr. To the Seventh Deutsche Bundesbank Spring Conference, Berlin, Germany on Asset Prices and Monetary Liquidity. Also, have a look at this discussion on Global Imbalances: A Contemporary Rashomon Tale with Five
Interpretations…

Lastly, mad props to Paul Kedrosky, who’s RM weekend link fest is always good fun (and the inspiration for my Saturday CC posts). Be sure to check out Infectious Greed, his musing about the money culture.

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  1. berthstar commented on Jun 14

    “Half of New Jobs Are Real Estate Related” I find that stat very hard to believe.
    You’d have to cast a very long bow to draw that conclusions.

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