The Fama of modern finance

When Eugene Fama enrolled at Chicago Booth School of Business in 1960, “finance was a joke”, he says in a candid and fascinating insight into his more than 50 years as a student, academic and teacher at the university.

The essay, published by Chicago Booth’s Capital Ideas, details Fama’s own history but also a short history of finance including how the efficient-market hypothesis was born.

Fama, who is often called the “father of modern finance”, calls the Black-Scholes paper on option pricing the most important paper in economics of the twentieth century.

“No other paper has to be learned by every single economist getting a PhD and has also created an industry – the derivatives industry.”

Fama, who also got into Harvard, chose to go to Chicago because he was advised that “it was more academically oriented than Harvard”.

He is the Robert R McCormick Distinguished Service Professor of Finance, and received a MBA and PhD from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business

Sponsored Content

“I love my work,” he says in the essay. “I have no intention of stopping as long as I’m breathing – and I may even do it after that.”

To read the full essay, click here.

Leave a Comment

Sort content by

Future Fund takes big step for corporate governance

The A$58 billion ($46 billion) Australian Future Fund has made a number of corporate governance-related decisions, including bringing its proxy voting for domestic shares in-house and the creation of an environmental, social and governance risk management function. mrec4inarticleinline Sponsored Content scnative1 scnative2 scnative3

Carbon risks reduced by good stock selection

Asset managers can dramatically reduce the carbon footprints of their funds through stock selection without the need to alter sector weightings or their overall investment strategy, according to a report by Mercer and Trucost for the WWF, that also found asset owners could encourage the active management of carbon risk in portfolios. mrec4inarticleinline Sponsored Content

Institutional influence shaping hedge fund investments

Janine Baldridge, Russell Investments’ global head of consulting and advisory services, talks to Kristen Paech about the new terms pension funds are demanding from their hedge fund managers – including lower fees and more control – and how managers are responding. mrec4inarticleinline Sponsored Content scnative1 scnative2 scnative3

$38b UN fund to review ALM

The investments committee and committee of actuaries of the $38 billion UN Joint Staff Pension Board will recommend the introduction of new asset classes, including emerging markets equity and debt, real return assets and private equity in a presentation to the board in July. mrec4inarticleinline Sponsored Content scnative1 scnative2 scnative3

CIC to invest 6% in hedge funds by 2010

The $200 billion China Investment Corporation (CIC) will have between $4 and $6 billion invested in hedge funds by the end of this year, and will develop in-house expertise including long/short under Felix Chee, special adviser to the CIO, as part of a wider recruitment drive which includes more than 30 new positions. mrec4inarticleinline Sponsored

Timor’s SWF awards first external mandate, begins global equities search

The $4.7 billion Petroleum Fund of Timor-Leste has diversified its portfolio away from US Treasuries by appointing, for the first time, an external manager to invest $1 billion in high-grade, diversified fixed income, while undertaking a search for global equity managers. mrec4inarticleinline Sponsored Content scnative1 scnative2 scnative3

Previous