Tuesday's pre-Christmas Market Wrap

A quick pre-holiday market wrap up, for those plugging away ahead of tomorrow's holiday-shortened trading sessions. News from the close of today's trading, and more, follows.

1. Reuters and Bear Mountain Bull summarize the day's trading.

2. US home prices collapse at near-Depression rate.

Barry Ritholtz reviews the housing data and the NAR spin.

3. Merrill Lynch economist David Rosenberg thinks US commercial real estate is "the next bailout".

Washington Post has the details on commercial real estate investors seeking government aid.

4. "Sneaky ways you're lured to shop" - Forbes on Christmas sales.

5. Iceland boils over 'like Chernobyl' in civil unrest over economy.

6. Buffeted quants are still in demand.

7. James Grant: Fed's money printing carries dire consequences.

8. Financial Crisis: The Greatest Gift in a Generation.

Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah, and a great holiday to all of our readers.

Check back in with us over the Christmas holiday. Markets will be closed, but we may have a few fun holiday items to share with you, and a little gift for fans of stock market lore. Until then, enjoy the holidays!

Market Wizard, Steve Clark on Trading: Grow Your Equity Curve

Trading wisdom recap: Steve Clark , founder of Omni Partners, was featured in Jack Schwager's 2012 book, Hedge Fund Market Wizards . Clark's interview with Schwager provided us with some valuable trading insights; "Lessons from Hedge Fund Market Wizards: Steve Clark" was one of our most popular posts ever. If I had to pick my favorite sections from Clark's chapter, it would be boiled down to these two concepts: "Do more of what works (and less of what doesn't work)" and "Manage your equity curve". Here's his full quote on the supreme importance of growing your equity curve : "Your job as a trader is to make the line of your equity curve go from bottom left to top right. That's it. Don't get hung up on other supposed "mandates". Protect your capital and the direction of that equity line. " I will leave you with one last series of quotes from Steve Clark's interview with Jack Schwager. ...

How to "Pull the Trigger" on Your Trading Ideas

In our last post, I quoted hedge fund manager, Jim Leitner on the importance of following up on your investment ideas. Today I'd like to follow up and share some thoughts on how you can learn to consistently "pull the trigger" on your best trading setups and investing ideas. In order to help you do that, we'll take from the best and offer up key insights from interviews with top traders and trading psychologists like Alan Farley, Brett Steenbarger, and Doug Hirschhorn . Now before we get to their key insights on overcoming trading anxiety and pulling the trigger on your trading ideas, let's remember what Jim Leitner said in his interview: "Learn to love to listen to people and when you hear something interesting, follow up on it. Don't just think, "Well that's an interesting idea" only to find out a year later that the company you could've bought shares in is now up 500-fold. You never want to say woulda, coulda, shoulda...

Seth Klarman: Margin of Safety (pdf)

Welcome, readers! Signup for free email updates at the Finance Trends Newsletter . Update: PDF links removed due to DMCA notice. Please see our extensive Klarman book notes below. New visitors, please check the Finance Trends home page for all new posts. Here's something for anyone who has been trying to get a look at Seth Klarman's now famous, and out of print, 1991 investment book, Margin of Safety . My knowledge of value investing is pretty much limited to what I've read in Ben Graham's The Intelligent Investor (the book which originally popularized the investment concept of a "Margin of Safety"), so check out the wisdom from Seth Klarman and other investing greats in our related posts below. You can also go straight to Ronald Redfield's Margin of Safety book notes . Related posts: 1. Seth Klarman interviews and Margin of Safety notes 2. Seth Klarman: Lessons from 2008 3. Investing Lessons from Sir John Templeton 4. ...

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