Stock Market Efficiency: How Does It Reflect on the Securities Trading

Capital markets provide a function which facilitates the buying and selling of long-term financial securities to increase liquidity and their value, Watson & Head (2013). Hence, the Efficient Market Hypothesis (EMH) explains the relationship that exists with the prices of the capital market securities, where no individual can beat the market by regularly buying securities at a lower price than it should be. This means that in order to be an efficient market prices of securities will have to fairly and fully reflect all available information, Fama (1970). Consequently, Watson & Head (2013) believe that market efficiency refers to the speed and quality of how share price adjusts to new information. Nevertheless, the testing of the efficient markets has led to the recognition of three different forms of efficiency in which explains how information available is used within the market. In this essay, the EMH will be analysed; testing of EMH will show that the model does provide strong evidence to explain share behaviour but also anomalies will be discussed that refutes the EMH. Therefore, a judgment will be made to see which structure explains the efficient market and whether there are some implications with the EMH, as a whole.

It is believed that Efficient Market Theory is based upon some fallacies and it does not provide strong grounds of whatever that it proposes. More importantly the Efficient Market theory is perceived to be too subjective in its definition and details and because of this it is close to impossible to accommodate this theory into a meaningful and explicit financial model that can actually assist investors in making the investment decisions (Andresso-O’Callaghan, B., 2007).

As Chapter 10 questions, if further evidence continues to surface that capital markets do not always behave in accordance with the efficient market hypothesis, then should we reject the research that has embraced the EMH as a fundamental assumption? In this regard we can return to earlier chapters of this book in which we emphasised that theories are abstractions of reality. Capital markets are made of individuals and as such it would not (or perhaps, should not) be surprising to find that the

In order to succeed in any business, it is extremely important to understand the stock market. In this assignment we were asked to follow the stock market continuously for four months and understand the market. The stock market is a global marketplace, where goods and services are traded in the form of equities.

The Efficient-Market Hypothesis (EMH) states that it is impossible to beat the market because stock market efficiency causes existing share prices to always incorporate and reflect all relevant information.

The probability of a normal economy is 80 percent, while the probability of a recession is 20 percent. What is the variance of the returns on this stock?

Another concern relates of insider trading of market efficiency of stock market. In his classical study Fama (1970) proposes efficient market Hypothesis, which suggests that stock price reflects all available information (historical price, public and private) in

Efficient Market Hypothesis has been controversial issues among researcher for decades. Until now, there is no united conclusion whether capital markets are efficiency or not. In 1960s, Fama (1970) believed that market is very efficient despite there are some trivial contradicted tests. Until recently, both empirical and theatrical efficient market hypothesis was being disputed by behavior finance economist. They have found that investor have psychological biases and found evidences that some stocks outperform other stocks. Moreover, there are evidences prove that market are not efficient for instance financial crisis, stock market bubble, and some investor can earn abnormal return which happening regularly in stock markets all over the world. Therefore, the purpose of this essay is to demonstrate that Efficient Market Hypothesis in stock (capital) markets does not exist in the real world by proofing four outstanding unrealistic conditions that make market efficient: information is widely available and cost-free, investor are rational, independent and unbiased, There is no liquidity problem in stock market, and finally stock prices has no pattern.

The weak-form efficiency cannot explain January effect. In semi-strong-form efficient market, to test this hypothesis, researchers look at the adjustment of share prices to public announcements such as earnings and dividend announcements, splits, takeovers and repurchases. As time goes, later tests tend to be not supportive to EMH. For instance, semi-strong-form efficiency cannot explain the pricing/earning effect. In strong-form efficiency, the highest level of market efficiency, Fama (1991) pointed out the immeasurability of market efficiency and suggested that it must be tested jointly with an equilibrium model of expected. However, perfect efficiency is an unrealistic benchmark that is unlikely to hold in practice.

The main research question is to understand the cost that many firms face when they are implementing tax planning ideas. Tax planning requires many considerations, but mainly the high costs and risks associated with the tax plan. If these costs can be understood, then they may possibly be mitigated in the future through thorough research and extensive planning. The author wants to know how well are market participants are able to anticipate tax-motivated income shifts. The author states prior studies and research resulted in firms expecting tax rate reductions while others did not. Furthermore, when the tax rate reductions were large, firms responded to the incentives to alter income.

Semi-strong form EMH is reflecting all publicy available information. It assumes stock adjust quickly to absorb new information. It also incorporate weak-form EMH. Stock prices reflect all new available information. And those investors will purchase stock after new information released. But the investor cannot benefit over market by trading on new information. And it is risk-adjusted return. Semi-strong form is mostly supported by empirical evidence. Notion of semi-strong efficiency are strongly supported by the evidence, but occasional studies as those identifying market anomalies including the small-firm effect and the January effect and events like stock market crash of October 19, 1987 are inconsistent with this form of market efficiency. Black suggests that most so-called "anomalies" result from data

Although the notion of market efficiency has- albeit rudimentarily- been dealt with since the 16th century , it was only when Eugene Fama published his PhD and his subsequent article Efficient Capital Markets: A Review of Theory and Empirical Work in 1970 that the Efficient Market Hypothesis (hereafter EMH) was established. The fundamental argument offered by EMH proposes that the multiplicity and interaction of fully rational economic actors within a market will lead to the elimination of disparities between market prices and actual values and allow the former to randomly fluctuate around the

The London Stock Exchange lists the FTSE 100 which is a share index of stocks of 100 companies showing the highest market capitalisation. This will be completed by discussing the movement of the company’s share during the time period. The companies will also be compared to the movement of the shares against each other, against FTSE 100 and against its industry sector. The records and comparisons will be all in context of Stock Market Efficiency. Stock Market allows a company to be aware of the trade with shares and finance which is at an agreeable price. Two of the companies chosen to

The efficient market hypothesis (EMH) promoted by Fama (1970) is considered an important theory in financial area. However, the existence of momentum profits has threatened EMH.

In its strongest form, the EMH says a market is efficient if all information isrelevant to the value of a share and accurately reflected in the market price. It is the most satisfying and compelling form of EMH in a theoretical sense, but it suffers from one big drawback in practice. It is difficult to confirm empirically, as the necessary research would be unlikely to win the cooperation of the relevant section of the financial community.