Epstein Secrets

nd demand. In Handbook of Financial Markets: Dynamics and Evolution, ed. T Hens, KR Schenkhoppe, pp. 57-130. Amsterdam: Elsevier Bray A, Graham 3, Harvey C, Michaely R, 2005. Payout policy in the 21st century. Journal of Financial Economics 77,483-527. van den Berg H, 2010. Mathematical Models of Biolo

d 'common sense' and simply worked out the mathematical consequences of this fact. Thus was relativity born. Economists seem to prefer the route of Einstein's peers, forever producing more complex theories to substantiate the existence of a hypothetical aether. Science can not be built simply on common

hree factor' model. This then becomes much more significant at the level of the whole stockmarket, especially in the light of the extensive work by Shiller and Smithers regarding the long-term valuation of stock markets. This work is very well summed up in 'Wall Street Revalued' [Smithers 2009]. The ce

olio of investments. Interestingly, this should act in a strongly counter-cyclical manner. Given the mean reversion properties of the market as per Shiller and Smithers, liquidity protection of this type should be cheap at historical liquidity lows, but increasingly expensive as liquidity bubbles formed

ke this naïve approach as it stands and follow the consequences through the model. With regard to management behaviour, research from Bray, Graham, Harvey and Michaely [Bray et al 2005] support the contention that maintenance of a constant dividend stream is an important priority for managers of corpo

These ideas include recent research in market microstructure, liquidity, post-Keynesian pricing theory as well as the work of Foley, Keen, Smithers, Shiller, Cooper, Pettis, Pepper & Oliver, Mehrling, Lyons and others. Neoclassical economics, while forming an intellectually beautiful framework, has prov

tly following the dramatic changes in value during the dotcom and housing booms of the last decade, and secondly because of the detailed research of Shiller, Smithers and others that both disprove a purely stochastic basis for stock market movements and also give substantial evidence for long term rever

have the advantage." Claude Shannon [Tribus & Mclrvine 1971]. I find the last quote very reassuring. In my own opinion, though less well known than Einstein, Von Neumann ranked close to Einstein in terms of genius. Like Einstein, he didn't merely bring in a single profound new idea; but seemed to change

st is in that of finance. The earliest work on random walks was that done by the mathematician Bachelier on stock prices. Bachelier's work predates Einstein's own random walk model of Brownian motion. For half a century Bachelier's work was largely forgotten. The use of random walks in finance was rekin

ish to remain working in finance. They are obliged to adopt rules of thumb that work. Some of the more thoughtful financiers, people such as Pettis, Shiller, Smithers, Cooper, Pepper & Oliver have then made insightful attempts to explain why these rules of thumb work in practice. In the field of market