Now That's a Product Worth Buying!

Like many guys, over the years I've taken an errant baseball or two (or, in my martial arts phase, a good swift kick) where it can REALLY hurt. Now thanks to the Nutty Buddy, guys don't have to worry.

Before you go any further, put your coffee down, or you may end up paying for a new keyboard and nmonitor.

Then click on this.

Without a doubt, the best "low rent" product ad I've ever seen.

And yes, nothing else I post this week can match up for sheer entertainment value.

HT: Mike Munger

Sunday Link Dump

It's been a busy weekend at the Unknown Household, with two birthday parties for the Unknown Kids to go to. A t one of them, they went roller skating for the first time.

Somehow, in the midst of all this, I managed to do some data manipulation (merging two large and somewhat messy data sets) for a coauthor of mine and get my PowerPoint slides done for my classes for the week. So for a change, I'm actually a bit ahead of things. I'm sure it won't last, but I'll enjoy it while it does.

Not surprisingly, there hasn't been any blogging this weekend. But there were a few good pieces that came up, so I thought I'd empty out my feed reader. Here they are:

Arnold "Red" Auerbach just passed away. The Boston Globe does a pretty good job of summarizing his career: "In two decades of National Basketball Association coaching, Auerbach won 938 games, a record when he retired in 1966, as well as a record nine NBA championship titles, a number he shares with Phil Jackson. In those 20 years, 16 with the Celtics, Auerbach had only one losing season while winning almost two-thirds of his games." As a long-time Celts fan, thanks for all the memories.

From The Marketwatch.com weekend edition: online hacking of investors' brokerage accounts in on the rise.

The NY Times reports on a study by Standard and Poors. It shows that only 28% of actively managed large cap funds were able to beat the S&P 500 this year. This gives even more evidence that index funds are probably the best strategy for the vast majority of investors.

Alina Tugend (also of the Times) points out how difficult it is to calculate late fees and finance charges on credit cards.

And now, it's time to spend some time with the Unknown Wife. And then to sleep so that I can get up an hour earlier tomorrow.

TGIF Link Dump

It's the weekend, so there are lots of things to do - raking leaves, buying costumes and spooky accoutrements for the Unknown House. Somewhere in there, I may even get around to more research.

So without further ado, here's today's link dump:

The WSJ Online has just updated their options scorecard, where they track companies under suspision of options backdating. The list is currently up to over 120 companies. HT: Barry Ritholtz at The Big Picture.

Businessweek Online profiles one of the biggest names in the investment banking business - Bruce Wasserstein of Lazard Ltd. It's worth a read , as it gives a good look inside a major IB house.

Bloomberg.com reports on a recent study by Credit Derivatives Research LLC that indicates there was informed trading in credit derivatives before a number of LBOs. I'm shocked - positively shocked.

As I reported yesterday, Sharesleuth published another report - this time on Utek Corp. Utek's stock subsequently dropped 36% for the day. This isn't really surprising, since the stocks that Sharesleuth profile tend to be pretty thinly traded. The average daily trading volume for Utek was bout 75,000 shares. The day the report came out, about 1 1/2 million shares changed hands.

Chick Jaffe of Marketwatch.com brings us the Stupid Investment of the Week. He shoots a whole lot of very large holes in George Fontanills' "Optionetics" trading program. Fontanills claims he can teach you to make lots of money trading options with little or no risk. Yeah, right-- pull the other one (it's got bells on it).

Last but not least, Andrea Coombs (also of Marketwatch) tells you about the latest malicious internet scams, tricks, and dangers.

Enjoy. It's now officially the weekend, and it's time to put the munchkins to bed.

Thursday Link Dump

It's Thursday, and that means I don't teach any classes. And since I've done my prep work for the week, it's RESEARCH TIME!

Financial News Online reports on trends in "buy" ratings by analysts.

The New Economist reports that (gasp!) Amazon.com price discriminates in textbooks. The good news is that there may be an arbitrage opportunity - buy your books in England, and ship them here.

Rachel Koning Beals at Marketwatch.com discusses absolute return funds - mutual funds that follow hedge fund-like strategies.

Mark Cuban's Sharesleuth.com just posted another piece. This one breaks down some suspicious numbers at UTEK Corp (Amex: UTK), a so-called technology-transfer company. Give it a read - it's pretty interesting.

From the WSJ Online, "SEC Probes Mutual Fund Firms After Settlement In Kickback Case". What I want to know is know did Eliot Spitzer miss this one? After all, it probably shaved a couple of basis points a year off individual investors' returns.

THat's enough to keep y'all busy. And now, SAS (and a hiney-load of very messy governance data) await. So ignore any screams from my office -- it's just the data being tortured.

To paraphrase Torguemada, give me enough time with data in a locked room and I'll get it to confess to anything.

Wednesday Link Dump

It's a teaching day, so I'll be short (actually, I'm short everyday, but this time I'll be brief, too). Here are the links du jour:

Tyler Cowen at Marginal Revolution has some good (if a bit harsh) advice on refereeing and being refereed.

FT.Com reports that a new index of Credit Default Swaps on high-yield leveraged loans is about to open.

And now for a chuckle: Indiana Jones just got back from his latest trip to find out he got denied for tenure.

Craig Newmark (who spends far too much time on this stuff) has a link to a Youtube piece where a professor relates some memorable student evaluations.

The former printing press employee who leaked info from the Business Week Inside Wall Street column just pleaded guilty to insider trading (from the NY Times).

Finally, I'm a bit late, but this week's Carnival of the Capitalists is being hosted at Blawg Review. My picks of the week are JLP on how to calculate tax-equivalent yields and Sox First on Stock option backdating and directors who sit on multiple boards.

And now, it's off to class.

And stop calling me Shirley.

Surprise! I'm A Capitalist.

Are you a capitalist or a socialist? Three guesses how I came out.

You Are 84% Capitalist, 16% Socialist

You're a capitalist pig - and proud of it. You believe that business makes the world great... And you'd never be ashamed of being rich!

Are You a Socialist or Capitalist?

First off, I'm far from rich - just trying to get comfortable.

And of course, some of the questions on the quiz are poorly worded. After all, it's entertainment, not a rigorous diagnostic instrument.

But with those caveats, give it a try.

HT: The Cheerful Oncologist.

The Monday Link Dump

T'was a busy weekend at the Unknown Household - 17 family members came over on Saturday for the previously mentioned group birthday part. Everyone behaved, and no one ended up needing to be medicated. Well, there was that merlot after we'd gotten everyone out of the house, but I don't count that.

And on Sunday (after church), Unknown Son and I went into my office so I could get a bit of work done. While this went on, Unknown Wife took Unknown Daughter and Unknown In-Laws to visit some other family members (hey, we live in the same general area as family now, so this is a regular occurrence).

With all that, I forgot to put up Saturday's Link Dump. So today you get a double (or even triple, if you count Sunday) dose:

Jack Ciesielski at AAO weblog points toward accounting standards for options volatility assumptions. Be still my nerdy little heart.

So now, it seems that we have space aliens in the economics classroom. Cool. HT: The Economist's view

Andy Samwick at Vox Baby takes on Krugman taking on options. I've seen Samwick's work, and I side with him.

Greg Mankiw comments on a hole in Harvard's proposed general education requirements - he thinks they should teach a class on markets & society

Barry Ritholtz of The Big Picture links to a Youtube piece where Monty Python gives the Stock Market Report

BusinessWeek.com tells us that the increased demands from Sarbox is sending directors back to school. So that means more money for Business schools - and that's a good thing.

The NYT online highlights some recent research by Bates, Kahle, and Stulz. It shows that firms are increasingly holding larger cash balances. The main reason? Increased uncertainty in firms' cash flows. For all you members of the pointy-headed academic tribe, this is definitely one for the corporate finance classes.

Joe Carter of Evangelical Outpost provides a historical map of who controlled the Middle East.

Dan Melson at SearchlightCrusade explains What Drives Loan Rates. It's a good as anything I've seen in a textbook. So if you're wondering...

Finally a number of personal finance bloggers have been discussing a CNNMoney piece titled 25 Rules To Grow Rich By. they're actually a compendium of some good, solid personal finance advice.

That's enough for now. I have exams to grade and a quiz to write.

And if you're new to Financial Rounds, check out the FAQ.

Friday Link Dump

It's been a busy week at Unknown University and the Unknown Household. In part, the homestead madness is due to Unknown Wife agreeing to host a "fall birthday party." Both the Unknown Kids, the Unknown Younger Brother, and The Unknown Niece have birthdays within a month or two (the guests of honor will be 8,6,46, and 18 respectively).

So, we have about 17 people (in addition to the Unknown Family) descending on our house tomorrow for a shindig, including both my brothers, the Unknown Wife's two sisters, and all three living Unknown Grandparents. It's good living near family, but it can be hectic.

Having said all that, here are the links that have been building up in my RSS reader over the last couple of days:

As usual, there's a number of stories on the option backdating front: Jack Ciesielski at AAO weblog updates the backdating body count, while the CFO.com highlights some research by The Corporate Library which shows that backdating may have spread in part because of directors who sit on multiple boards.

The New Economist discusses Nobel Prize Winner William Sharpe's new Investment book, with links to a few chapters of the book. It's a bit technical, but worth the effort.

Richard Kang at Seeking Alpha notes the The market for Fundamental Index is getting a bit more crowded.

Marshall Loeb at Marketwatch.com tells us where college graduates' starting salaries stand. The good news is that they're up- a brand new accounting grad averages over $46,000 per year, with a finance degree coming slightly lower at $43,000.

Joe Carter at Evangelical Outpost has the latest installment of his Yak Shaving Razor Series - chock full of techie goodness.

Dan Melson at Searchlight Crusade discusses the risk of not taking on risk in your investment portfolio.

Finally, for all you accountants out there, the Wall Street Journal reports that the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (The U.S. accounting-firm overseer ) has issued long-awaited guidance for auditing the value of employee stock options. It's important, since companies have a lot of discretion in estimating the expense associated with options grants.

It's the weekend, so time to kick back a bit - the Unknown Wife is out with the neighborhood ladies group, and the kids are asleep. So it's time to relax a bit. There's some leftover merlot in the fridge that's calling my name...

A Good Research Presentation

We just had a visiting speaker at Unknown University. It was an interesting paper - about a new way of measuring relative performance. The paper had some problems, but it was interesting because it sparked a lot of discussion, and gave people a lot of ideas about how to apply the authors' approach to other areas. In fact, I may have a new research project.

So all in all, it was worth it.

On Finishing Papers

It was a good day - I put in a good solid couple of hours and finally finished a paper that I'd been working on for over a year and a half. Now I can send it out to a couple of extremely picky friends for their comments, and then (if they can't find any major holes in it), I can submit it to a journal.

I'm more and more convinced that two keys to succeeding in academia are writing every day and getting projects done in sequence. I have a disturbing tendency to start new projects before I've finished my existing ones. So, I end up like the guy spinning plates on the old Ed Sullivan Show - running from project to project, but never getting any one thing done.

So now, I have to finish a few things before I start anything new. That way I won't have a mob of coauthors yelling for my head.

For some great advice on this topic, click here to see what vegrevlle had to say -- he makes a lot of sense.