Big Ideas

Triumph of the Optimists: 101 Years of Global Investment Returns by Dimson, Marsh and Staunton (2002) is thorough, logical and concise. With scores of illustrative graphs and figures, its statistics are accessible and its style straightforward. Its message, however, is somewhat at odds with the title. Below is a chapter-by-chapter review of the insights in this book: Keep Reading

Do stock index prices fluctuate around some value baseline? In his March 2001 paper entitled “Temporary Movements in Stock Prices”, Jonathan Lewellen investigates the degree to which stock market returns exhibit long-term reversion. Using data from the period 1926-1998, he concludes that: Keep Reading

In his April 2003 working paper entitled “The Efficient Market Hypothesis and Its Critics”, Burton Malkiel, author of A Random Walk Down Wall Street, contends that “a blindfolded chimpanzee throwing darts at the Wall Street Journal could select a portfolio that would do as well as the experts.” Has recent work of the behavioral finance community and the pattern-finders changed his mind? Keep Reading