Peter Lynch Lyrics: Theory vs Practice

The following notes was taken from a forum posting. If not mistaken the original writings were posted at Wallstraits.com

Lynch Lyrics
Theory vs Practice

"After that interlude at Fidelity, I returned to Wharton for my second year of graduate school more skeptical than ever about the value of academic stock-market theory. It seemed to me that most of what I learned at Wharton, which was supposed to help you succeed in the investment business, could only help you fail. I studied statistics, advanced calculus, and quantitative analysis. Quantitative analysis taught me that the things I saw happening at Fidelity couldn't really be happening."


"I also found it difficult to integrate the efficient-market hypothesis (that everything in the stock market is 'known' and prices are always 'rational') with the random-walk hypothesis (that the ups and downs of the market are irrational and entirely unpredictable). Already I'd seen enough odd fluctuations to doubt the rational part, and the success of the great Fidelity fund managers was hardly unpredictable."

"It also was obvious that Wharton professors who believed in quantum analysis and random walk weren't doing nearly as well as my new colleagues at Fidelity, so between theory and practice, I cast my lot with the practitioners. It's very hard to support the popular academic theory that the market is irrational when you know somebody who just made a twentyfold profit in Kentucky Fired Chicken, and furthermore, who explained in advance why the stock was going to rise. My distrust of theorizers and prognosticators continues to present day."

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