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Finance

A Random Walk Down Wall Street

The Time-Tested Strategy for Successful Investing

Why low-cost index funds usually beat stock pickers.

by Burton G. Malkiel

Malkiel popularizes the random walk hypothesis, arguing that stock prices move unpredictably and that few investors can consistently beat the market. He surveys technical and fundamental analysis, market bubbles, and modern portfolio theory, and makes the case for low-cost, diversified index investing.

It is a sharp antidote to overconfidence about predicting markets, which is useful judgment for any founder allocating personal or company wealth. The emphasis on humility, cost, and diversification carries over to thinking about risk in general.

Where to get it