Fama and Booth on the Art and Science of Investing

Barry Ritholtz

05 Nov 2019, 11:06 AM IST

(Bloomberg Opinion) -- What if we could get two legends in the world of investing together for a discussion on their lives, careers, and the art and science of investing?

This week, we are privileged to have just such a conversation with Nobel laureate Eugene Fama and Dimensional Funds Advisors co-founder David Booth.

After more than 50 years of collaboration between the pair, the University of Chicago Booth School of Business thought that it might be useful to host a conversation with these two giants about the nature of their relationship, how investing has evolved and what we can expect from the markets in the future.

Fama is best known for the efficient-market hypothesis, his research on portfolio theory, asset pricing and the Fama-French factor models. He won the Nobel in 2013, along with Robert Shiller and Lars Peter Hansen.

Booth co-founded DFA with another University of Chicago alumnus, Rex Sinquefield, in 1981. The firm manages $579 billion and employs 1,400 people.

During the course of our conversation, which will last about an hour, we will cover three broad topics: 1) Fama’s ground-breaking research; 2) the relationship between Fama and Booth; and 3) how DFA has applied academic theories in the real world of investing.

Efficient markets, bubbles, the new factor zoo (there are now estimated to be as many as 700 newly discovered factors) and whether beta is dead will all be fair game for the discussion.

Fama and Booth on the Art and Science of Investing

Bloomberg readers can not only watch the event live, but can submit questions at BRitholtz3@bloomberg.net before midnight tonight. Bloomberg customers can access the live event here. The full interview will be streamed live on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn tomorrow at 1 p.m. Eastern time; the video will be broadcast later this week. The full Masters in Business audio-only podcast will be released this coming weekend.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Greiff at jgreiff@bloomberg.net

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Barry Ritholtz is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He is chairman and chief investment officer of Ritholtz Wealth Management, and was previously chief market strategist at Maxim Group. He is the author of “Bailout Nation.”