Economics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 17

Economics - Essay Example st be unfeasible to break the overall stock exchange market through market timing or expert stock selection, and the only solution to an investor for obtaining higher returns is by buying riskier investments. Efficient Market Hypothesis is divided into three types. These are strong, semi strong and weak. The weak Efficient Market Hypothesis theory says that prices on assets traded such as bonds, stocks, or property already show all past available information for public. The semi-strong Efficient Market Hypothesis states that prices in addition to reflecting publicly available past information also shows that prices constantly change to show new publicly available information. However, the strong Effective Market Hypothesis says that in addition to the above two types of information, prices also show â€Å"insider† information or hidden truths. Although Efficient Market Hypothesis is the foundation of the financial theory today, it is doubtful and highly uncertain. A large number of educational institutions are in favor of Efficient Market Hypothesis but an equivalent number of people are against it. For instance, Warren Buffet, an investor, has been beating the market for quite a long time now which is almost impracticable according to the theory of Efficient Market Hypothesis. Critics of the Efficient Market Hypothesis also draw our attention towards the event of 1987 and many as such when the stock price of Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) came down by 20% in one day as proof that stock prices can diverge to a large extent from their fair market values. There is also proof against and for strong, semi-strong and weak Effective Market Hypothesis. In an answer to the critics, the advocates of Effective Market Hypothesis claim that market efficiency does not ascertain complete certainty about the future but it is a generali zation of the financial market which may be false sometimes. However in practical, market is efficient for purposes of speculation for almost all