Marketing Charts submits: The number of digital and direct marketers who plan to add staff to their to payrolls in Q409 has risen to 30% from 20% in Q309, while the number reporting hiring freezes for the quarter has also risen, to 45% from 30%, according to the latest Quarterly Digital and Direct Marketing Employment Report from Bernhart Associates Executive Search, LLC. The percentage of marketers planning layoffs was 8%, unchanged from Q3, writes MediaBuyerPlanner.Complete Story »

  The BurrillReport submits: By Kristi EatonA new study shows that a cancer drug is no different in effectiveness as a gold standard for macula degeneration. Researchers from Boston University School of Medicine and the VA Boston Healthcare System discovered there was no difference in efficacy between Genentech's (now Roche's (RHHBY.PK)) Bevacizumab (Avastin) and Ranibizumab (Lucentis) for the treatment of age-related macular degeneration after six months.Complete Story »

  Tom Lydon (ETF Trends) submits: When we think of energy, we don’t immediately think of wood. However, the timber industry and related ETFs are garnering more attention as electricity producers seek alternative energy sources.State mandates and Congressional bills are encouraging the use of renewable energy, which has caused a jump in interest in wood to generate electricity, reports Traci Watson for USA Today.Complete Story »

  Vega submits: 1) The Skyrocketing Monetary Base 2) The Mattress Full of Excess Reserves 3) Stable Money And Deleveraging 4) Moderate CPI with Lots of Slack 5) Should Goldfinger be Chairman of the Federal Reserve? Is the Federal Reserve Board (Fed) really printing money? Is inflation inevitable? Continuing last week’s theme of inflation vs deflation, let’s take a close look at what’s really going on with the US money supply.Complete Story »

  Erwan Mahe submits:These are the three pillars of our macroeconomic analysis, whose order may change according to the period, especially since they are so closely linked to each other, inter-reacting through a feedback loop, be it positive (easy credit, globalisation and disinflation) or negative (deflation, credit crunch, protectionism). We have been closely monitoring the credit market whose behaviour justified our “exuberance” toward equities between 2003 and 2007 and whose predictable collapse following the death of securitisation in May/June 2007 explains our about-face, which some viewed just a few months ago as overdone.Complete Story »

  The Burrill Report submits: By Marie Daghlan In life sciences, trial results can mean everything. This week's winner was Targacept (TRGT), with shares of the company surging 18.5 percent after the company announced full results of its successful mid-stage study of TC-5214 for depression. Shares of Targacept skyrocketed in July when the company reported preliminary results and are up 1700 percent above their low at the end of November 2008. Targacept completed a secondary offering in the beginning of the month, raising more than $46 million overnight. (Burrill & Company, the owner of this publication, is an investor in the company.)Complete Story »

  Tom Lydon (ETF Trends) submits: Frontier markets are a notch below emerging markets, but they’re preparing to become a force in their own right. There are a variety of ETFs that can help you access these nascent economies.Over the next three-to-nine months, frontier markets are anticipated to outperform the emerging and developed markets, reports Allen Wan for Bloomberg. The Middle East is in a position to lead the way, since the region has not yet recovered from the global market meltdown, making valuations cheap. The region’s equities are expected to catch up as corporate earnings improve.Complete Story »

  Tom Lydon (ETF Trends) submits: Actively managed ETFs are going mainstream as the industry’s big names join in to get their share of the pie. This inchoate ETF space has the potential for more growth and innovation with more firms vying for investor interest.Passive ETFs have paved the way for the active ETF industry, and now big-name brands such as Vanguard, PIMCO, Grail Advisors, Claymore and State Street Global Advisors are getting in on the action, writes Lisa Smith for Investopedia.Complete Story »

  IndexUniverse Europe submits: Paul Amery, editor of IndexUniverse.eu, recently conducted a telephone interview with Charles Morris, head of absolute return strategy at HSBC global asset management. Morris and his colleagues are active users of ETFs in their portfolios. IU.eu: Charles, please describe your fund operation.Complete Story »

  Rising Dividend Investing submits: John Burr Williams is widely credited as being the father of dividend investing and the creator of the forerunner of today's dividend discount models. Williams was also a first rate economic strategist. Williams was already a successful Wall Street investor, when in 1937 he went back to Harvard. Williams sought to earn his PhD in Economics with the hopes of learning what had caused the stock market crash of 1929 and the subsequent economic depression of the 1930s. By the end of his time at Harvard, Williams had concluded that the primary causes of the depression were high stock market volatility, which he believed was caused by a lack of an accurate method for valuing stocks; and ill-conceived government actions and inactions in the economy. Complete Story »

  Tom Lydon (ETF Trends) submits: As a portfolio is being built, it’s important to consider the strategy or type of ETFs to have in play. One issue to consider is whether it’s better to have dividend or growth in your portfolio.Investors looking for dividend-paying stocks will encounter the argument that “growth” stocks may be better than those paying dividends, remarks John Jagerson for Learning Markets. Complete Story »

  Ravi Nagarajan submits:Most value investors tend to avoid the use of leverage in their portfolios due to the old saying: “The market can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent.” An investor can be entirely correct about his or her investment choices but the market may fail to recognize this before ruinous margin calls result in forced asset sales at depressed values. While there are many successful hedge fund managers who skillfully employ leverage and engage in short selling, most individual investors should stay far away from such strategies. In light of this general conservatism on the part of value investors, an article suggesting the use of mortgage debt to improve investment results may seem a bit odd. In most circumstances, my view is that investors should not only avoid leverage through margin accounts but should also attempt to be free of all forms of personal debt. Excessive debt obviously played a large part in the real estate meltdown and has ruined the finances of many families. Nevertheless, opportunities now exist for intelligent use of mortgage debt for certain individuals.Complete Story »

  FINalternatives submits: by Jon ShazarA strong September gave hedge funds their best third quarter in a dozen years, according to the Credit Suisse Index Co.Complete Story »

  The Private Equiteer submits: I’ve harped on a little (or maybe a lot) about how iniquitous and unscrupulous equity ratchets are. I’ve said they misalign interests from the outset and lead to adversarial relationships when triggered. So, are there any equitable ways to structure equity ratchets? And, if not, why do we still use them? Like most things, there are shades of grey. At one end, we have short-term one-way earnings-based ratchets that go against the mantra of private equity and pin executives to short-term performance. At the other end, we have long-term two-way returns-based ratchets that create much better alignment across the entire stock register.Complete Story »