Wednesday, January 16, 2013

The Efficient Markets Hypothesis and Cats

In his book A Random Walk Down Wall Street, Burton Malkiel, a Princeton University professor, discussed the Efficient Market Hypothesis (EMH). A famous quote in the book is "a blindfolded monkey throwing darts at a newspaper’s financial pages could select a portfolio that would do just as well as one carefully selected by experts." While we greatly respect Professor Malkiel, we feel that his statement unfairly excludes our feline friends. During 2012, the Observer, a London-based newspaper, ran a contest that pitted a group of professional investment managers, a group of students, and a cat. At the beginning of the year each group was given £5,000. The cat's investment strategy was to throw his favorite mouse on a grid with numbers assigned to companies. For the record, Orlando the cat's return for the year was 10.84 percent, the pros gained 3.53 percent, and the students lost 3.2. percent. Where can we find the newly opened Tabby Growth mutual fund?