This post provides links to a number of interesting articles I have read over the past few days that you may also enjoy.

• Michael Mackenzie, Saskia Scholtes and Aline van Duyn (Financial Times): Trepidation as Fed prepares to end easing, October 29, 2009.
As the Federal Reserve’s programme of buying mortgage debt edges towards $1,000 billion this week, investors are starting to worry about what happens once the central bank starts to slow down and exit from this key plank of its monetary easing policy.

• Quint Tatro (Minyanvile): Seven lessons from a legend, October 29, 2009.
Jesse Livermore was wealthy and broke several times over during his tumultuous life, which ended in his suicide. His ability to make and lose millions garnered him many lessons which the trading community have enshrined over the decades since his death. Yet these lessons and rules remain as pertinent today as they were in the early twentieth century.

• Brett Steenbarger (TraderFeed): If you’re fighting a trend, you’re defending your view, October 30, 2009.
One of the most common problems I see among intraday traders is that they end the day flat in their positioning, but not flat mentally. That is, they have no overnight risk, but they have a strong directional opinion on a swing or larger time frame. Worst of all are intraday traders who become enmeshed in opinions about long-term market action, economic fundamentals, and political developments. Those views take the active trader away from the simple supply and demand that governs action on the day time frame.

• Ron Paul (Forbes): Be prepared for the worst, October 29, 2009.
The large-scale government intervention in the economy is going to end badly.

• Lewis Braham (MarketWatch): Halloween Special – five economic scenarios to keep you up at night, October 30, 2009.
Five money managers and financial gurus share their worst-case scenarios for the market and the economy.

• Edward Luce (Financial Times): Angry Americans still feeling the slump, October 29, 2009.
If Barack Obama had been told last November that the economy would have moved out of recession by July – as Thursday’s gross domestic product numbers indicated – he might have broken out the champagne. However, the White House was more funereal than celebratory in keeping with the opinion of most voters. For most Americans, the return to growth is a pure abstraction.

• Economist.com: Buffer warren, October 29.
Why are banks so averse to raising equity?

• Floyd Norris (The New York Times): To rein in pay, rein in Wall Street, October 29, 2009.
Why are financial industry paychecks so big? The answer is simple, and it is the one Willie Sutton is supposed to have offered when asked why he robbed banks: “Because that’s where the money is.”

• Robert Samuelson (Newsweek): Up against a wall of debt, October 29, 2009.
The idea that the government of a major advanced country would default on its debt – that is, tell lenders that it won’t repay them all they’re owed – was, until recently, a preposterous proposition. Well, it’s still a very, very long shot, but it’s no longer entirely unimaginable.

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Last 5 posts by Prieur du Plessis

• Prieur’s readings (November 21, 2009) - November 21st, 2009
• The lie of the investment land, according to Dylan Grice - November 21st, 2009
• Gross: Anything but .01% - November 21st, 2009
• The week ahead - November 21st, 2009
• Don Coxe webcast – updated (November 20, 2009) - November 21st, 2009