The Efficient Market Hypothesis

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The efficient market hypothesis has been one of the main topics of academic finance research. The efficient market hypotheses also know as the joint hypothesis problem, asserts that financial markets lack solid hard information in making decisions. Efficient market hypothesis claims it is impossible to beat the market because stock market efficiency causes existing share prices to always incorporate and reflect all relevant information . According to efficient market hypothesis stocks always trade at their fair value on stock exchanges, making it impossible for investors to either purchase undervalued stocks or sell stocks for inflated prices. As such, it should be impossible to outperform the overall market through expert stock selection or market timing, and that the only way an investor can possibly obtain higher returns is by purchasing riskier investments . In reality once cannot always achieve returns in excess of average market return on a risk-adjusted basis. They have been numerous arguments against the efficient market hypothesis. Some researches point out the fact financial theories are subjective, in other words they are ideas that try to explain how markets work and behave.
Efficient market hypothesis was developed by professor Eugene Fama at the University of Chicago Booth School Of Business as an academic concept of study through his published Ph.D. thesis in the early 1960s . Fama proposed two crucial concepts that have defined the conversation on efficient markets in his thesis. The efficient market hypothesis was the prominent theory in the 1960s, Fama published dissertation arguing for the random walk hypothesis to support his efficient market theory. “Fama demonstrated that the notion of market efficiency ...

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... the public and private sector. It uses both the weak form and semi strong from to make decisions. When an investor is given both public and private information the investor would not be able to profit about the average investor even if he was provided with new information at any given time. These investors are given name such as insiders, exchange specialist, analyst and money mangers. Insiders are senior managers that have access to inside information of that company. The security exchange commission prohibits that allow of inside information use to achieve abnormal returns on investments. An exchange specialist can achieve above average returns with specific order information on a specific equity. Analysts can analyze whether an analyst opinion can help an investor achieve above average returns. Institutional money mangers work handle mutual funds and pensions.

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