Adaptive Markets

A new, evolutionary explanation of markets and investor behavior

Half of all Americans have money in the stock market, yet economists can't agree on whether investors and markets are rational and efficient, as modern financial theory assumes, or irrational and inefficient, as behavioral economists believe. The debate is one of the biggest in economics, and the value or futility of investment management and financial regulation hangs on the answer. In this groundbreaking book, Andrew Lo transforms the debate with a powerful new framework in which rationality and irrationality coexist--the Adaptive Markets Hypothesis. Drawing on psychology, evolutionary biology, neuroscience, artificial intelligence, and other fields, Adaptive Markets shows that the theory of market efficiency is incomplete. When markets are unstable, investors react instinctively, creating inefficiencies for others to exploit. Lo's new paradigm explains how financial evolution shapes behavior and markets at the speed of thought--a fact revealed by swings between stability and crisis, profit and loss, and innovation and regulation. An ambitious new answer to fundamental questions about economics and investing, Adaptive Markets is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand how markets really work.

O noua explicatie evolutiva a pietelor si a comportamentului investitorilor Jumatate dintre americani au bani la bursa, totusi economistii nu pot fi de acord cu privire la faptul daca investitorii si pietele sunt rationale si eficiente, asa cum presupune teoria financiara moderna, sau irational si ineficient, ca economisti crede. Dezbaterea este una dintre cele mai mari din economie, iar valoarea sau inutilitatea managementului investitiilor si a reglementarii financiare sta pe raspuns.