A Random Walk Down Wall Street

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A Random Walk Down Wall Street

By Burton G. Malkiel

Narrated by George Guidall

Length 12hr 13min 00s

4.6

A Random Walk Down Wall Street summary & excerpts

strong, and by creating their own theory called the New Investment Technology. This last includes a concept called beta, including smart beta, and I intend to trample on that a bit. By the early 2000s, even some academics had joined the professionals in arguing that the stock market was at least somewhat predictable, after all. Still, as you can see, a tremendous battle is going on, and it's fought with deadly intent because the stakes are tenure for the academics and bonuses for the professionals. That's why I think you'll enjoy this random walk down Wall Street. It has all the ingredients of high drama, including fortunes made and lost and classic arguments about their cause. But before we begin, perhaps I should introduce myself and state my qualifications as guide. I have drawn on three aspects of my background in writing this book. Each provides a different perspective on the stock market. First is my professional experience in the fields of investment analysis and portfolio management. I started my career as a market professional with one of Wall Street's leading investment firms. Later, I chaired the investment committee of a multinational insurance company and for many years served as a director of one of the world's largest investment companies. These perspectives have been indispensable to me. Some things in life can never fully be appreciated or understood by a virgin. The same might be said of the stock market. Second are my current positions as an economist and chair of several investment committees. Specializing in securities markets and investment behavior, I have acquired detailed knowledge of academic research and new findings on investment opportunities. Last and certainly not least, I have been a lifelong investor and successful participant in the market. How successful I will not say, for it is a peculiarity of the academic world that a professor is not supposed to make money. A professor may inherit lots of money, marry lots of money, and spend lots of money, but he or she is never, never supposed to earn lots of money. It's unacademic. Anyway, teachers are supposed to be dedicated, or so politicians and administrators often say, especially when trying to justify the low academic pay scales. Academics are supposed to be seekers of knowledge, not of financial reward. It is in the former sense, therefore, that I shall tell you of my victories on Wall Street. This book has a lot of facts and figures. Don't let that worry you. It is specifically intended for the financial layperson and offers practical, tested investment advice. You need no prior knowledge to follow it. All you need is the interest and the desire to have your investments work for you. Investing as a Way of Life Today At this point, it's probably a good idea to explain what I mean by investing and how I distinguish this activity from speculating. I view investing as a method of purchasing assets to gain profit in the form of reasonably predictable income, dividends, interest, or rentals, and or appreciation over the long term. It is the definition of the time period for the investment return and the predictability of the returns that often distinguish an investment from a speculation. A speculator buys stocks hoping for a short-term gain over the next days or weeks. An investor buys stocks likely to produce a dependable future stream of cash returns and capital gains when measured over years or decades. Let me make it quite clear that this is not a book for speculators. I am not going to promise you overnight riches. I am not promising you stock market miracles. Indeed, a subtitle for this book might well have been The Get Rich Slowly But Surely Book. However, just to stay even, your investments have to produce a rate of return equal to inflation. Inflation in the United States and throughout most of the developed world fell to two percent or below in the early 2000s, and some analysts believe that relative price stability will continue indefinitely. They suggest that inflation is the exception rather than the rule, and that historical periods of rapid technological progress and peacetime economies were periods of stable or even falling prices. It may well be that little or no inflation will occur during the decades ahead, but I believe investors should not dismiss the possibility that inflation will accelerate again at some time in the future. Although productivity growth accelerated in the 1990s and early 2000s, it has recently slowed and history tells us that the pace of improvement has always been uneven. Moreover, productivity improvements are harder to come by.

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