The stock market rise has been dubbed by some the “idiot-maker rally,” for its gravity-defying gains despite a lack of fundamentals. Nevertheless, the Dow (DJI) now sits above 15,000 and the S&P 500 (^GSPC) above 1600, both up more than 14% this year.

Related: There’s More to This Market Rally Than Meets the Eye

When you look at the smart money, though, how are they actually making impressive returns?

Take the Yale endowment. It’s up 100% over the last decade, according to Bob Rice, author of The Alternative Answer. But in 2012, just 6% of Yale’s portfolio was allocated to U.S. equities. Half was invested in absolute return, private equity, and real asset strategies – all alternative investments - while another chunk was in emerging markets.

In The Alternative Answer, Rice writes that "institutional investors and their ultrawealthy friends have had an unfair advantage: access to strategies and vehicles that were both unknown and unavailable to the rest of us.”

Rice, who is also

Who would have thought that Fannie Mae (FNMA), once the recipient of $116 billion in government bailout funds, would one day be the reason the government could delay its debt ceiling deadline by almost four months?

U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew told CNBC Friday that a one-time payment of $59.4 billion from Fannie Mae pushes back the debt ceiling deadline effectively from May 19 “until at least Labor Day,” which falls on September 2.

Goldman Sachs and other Wall Street firms also expect the government won’t run out of spending money until this fall.

Related: Next 5 Months Are Critical for Budget Reform: Maya MacGuineas

“The good news is things actually are a getting better on the deficit,” says The Daily Ticker’s Henry Blodget. “ Everyone hates the sequester but it went in [effect]…the lines are closing…the deficit will be smaller.”

The bad news is that Republicans and Democrats still haven’t agreed on a plan to deal with the debt ceiling when it is reached, and this latest

Provided by Business Insider's Joe Weisenthal

Earlier this week, a bunch of high-profile investors presented ideas at the Ira Sohn Investment Conference.

One big theme: Bernanke hate.

A lot of big investors HATE the Fed Chairman--or at least his loose-money policies.

Investing legend Stanley Druckenmiller, for example, calls current Fed policy totally outrageous and inappropriate.

Paul Singer says the Fed is creating class warfare.

These two big shots are not alone in their Fed sentiments. If you listen to a lot of old industry veterans, you'll hear a lot of grousing about Bernanke and quantitative easing and so forth. The frustration is so angry and dismissive that these folks often sound like anonymous commenters on a blog.

Why are these investors so angry?

Former Treasury official and trader Mark Dow sent us his thoughts on the matter.

He writes:

Some guys don't understand monetary policy and think he's doing wrong thing.

Others think it's immoral that markets aren't let to clear

Americans are expected to spend nearly $21 billion on their moms this Sunday, or an average of $168.94 per mom, according to the National Retail Federation’s Mother’s Day spending survey. Mother’s Day ranks third behind Christmas and Valentine’s Day in terms of holiday spending (Father’s Day comes in fifth). The Census Bureau estimates that there are 85.4 million moms in the U.S.

Flowers and cards are popular Mother’s Day gifts and a majority of moms are treated to brunch and dinner too. The National Restaurant Association projects that more than one-quarter of American adults -- nearly 80 million people -- will celebrate Mother's Day by eating out.

Related: The World's Richest Moms

Hooters, the Atlanta-based chain best-known for its scantily-clad waitresses, is trying to broaden its customer base to include more females, and of course, moms. The restaurant’s 430 locations will offer moms a free drink and entrée (up to $10) for Mother’s Day dinner. (Last year Hooters gave away free

Does the bond fund you’re holding as a way to buffer your portfolio from the risk of stocks, actually contain more risk than you think? These funds could in fact contain sticks of dynamite, according to Bob Rice, managing partner at Tangent Capital and author of The Alternative Answer. He explains why in the accompanying video.

“You can’t hold a bond fund until maturity, there is no maturity date on a bond fund,” Rice explains (this matters because interest rates or the yield on a bond move in the opposite direction of its price). “Right now interest rates are so low. They have only been this low three percent of the time that U.S. treasuries have existed. So the odds of them increasing are very high, and if that happens many of these bond funds will suffer 20%, 30%, 40% declines in value. So the idea that your bond fund is safe is really misleading.”

Related: Bond Bubble Will Be Bigger Catastrophe than Real Estate Bust: Casey

Not only that, more than ever bond funds are investing in

Rumors are resurfacing that Apple (AAPL) will finally introduce a cheaper iPhone, likely sometime this fall.

Fueling the latest speculation: a Reuters report that Taiwanese electronics maker and Apple supplier Pegatron plans to boost its Chinese workforce by as much as 40% in the second half of the year. Pegatron CFO Charles Lin said 60% of company revenues would come in the second half of 2013, but he didn’t elaborate.

A cheaper iPhone is “very necessary,” says The Daily Ticker’s Henry Blodget. “If [Apple] wants to compete in China, India, Brazil -- places where $600 for a phone is just inconceivable especially without subsidies -- They’ve got to have a cheaper phone.”

Related: Apple Gearing Up to Launch New iPhone (Yawn)

U.S. customers typically pay $199 for the latest iPhone because cellphone carriers like Verizon Wireless (VZ) or AT&T (T) subsidize the purchase by roughly $400. Most foreign markets don’t have such subsidies.

But those markets will soon have a much cheaper

The only successful new American car company in more than half a century, Tesla (TSLA), reported its first quarterly profit yesterday.

It wasn't a big profit.

But the fact that it was any sort of profit blew away investors, who instantly bid the company's stock up 25% to a new high near $70.

Helping fuel this gigantic move was presumably collective panic on the part of the many investors who are short Tesla's stock, betting that the electric car company will falter and its stock will tank.

When short-sellers are forced to "cover" their bets on unexpected good news, their panic buying often creates demand that drives stock prices through the roof. And Tesla's stock presumably benefitted from that.

Related: The Next Big U.S. IPO? It May Be Chrysler

But Tesla has defied critics and short-sellers from the beginning.

When entrepreneur Elon Musk and others founded the company a decade ago, most people assumed that Tesla's ride would be short-lived. After all, the fate of new American car

It's fair to say that many women walk a thin line when it comes to balancing a career with children and family. The difficulties can be immense and the struggle constant. Some women sacrifice their ability to climb the corporate ladder so that they can spend more time at home. Some women swing the opposite way and dedicate themselves wholly to their work, and a few of those women strike gold.

Erin Carlyle of Forbes joined the Daily Ticker to discuss the life of a billionaire mom.

There are very few women on the Forbes Billionaire List, just 138 out of 1,426. The number becomes even smaller when you look only at female self-made billionaires; only 24 were included on the list this year.

Related: The Latest, Most Adorable Sign of an Economic Rebound

Meg Whitman, former eBay CEO and current CEO of Hewlett-Packard, has had to juggle raising two sons and managing some of the biggest companies on Wall Street. Forbes estimates her net worth to be $1.9 billion.

"Her family is not a source of