1. Rob Carrick looks at the possibility of requiring financial advisors to have a fiduciary duty. I think many investors would be surprised to learn that financial advisors don’t have some duty of care similar to a fiduciary duty.
2. Larry MacDonald quotes a paragraph from Karl Marx’s writing showing that he did some short-term speculative trading similar to modern day-trading.

3. Preet asks whether your broker’s bond desk is making undue profits on your bond trades. the best protection I know of is to get both the buy and sell price to check on the spread. unfortunately, many brokers don’t make this easy.

4. Thicken my Wallet examines some myths about the battle between the Competition Bureau and the Canadian Real Estate Association.

5. Canadian Capitalist explains some handy Google tools for portfolio tracking in a spreadsheet. I find this far better than using the standard portfolio tracking at various web sites. I always want to do calculations that aren’t offered.

6. Mr. Cheap looks at the distinction between middlemen who add value and those who don’t. the internet has made life difficult for many middlemen, which is a good thing for the long term, but painful for some in the short term.

7. big Cajun Man runs down his top 5 investing regrets.

8. Tom Bradley makes an amusing open application for employment at Google.

Michael James on Money: Short Takes: Fiduciary Duty for Advisors …