March 6, 2025· 49 min

Eugene Fama and David Booth on the Birth of Modern Finance

Orality
Model
82%
Oral-dominant (speeches, podcasts, storytelling)

Speaker Breakdown

HostTracy Alloway(2,760 words)
M:28%
HostJoe Weisenthal(2,284 words)
M:29%
GuestEugene Fama(1,745 words)
M:28%
GuestDavid Booth(1,414 words)
M:28%

Oral Indicators

Agonistic35%
very, absolutely, literally
Engagement64%
you, our, your
Memory Aids100%
listen, well, okay
Repetition100%
like (71x), it's (70x), know (60x)
Parallelism86%
And I'm Joe Weisenthal...., And not only because it's funn..., But the CFTC set up something ...
Sound Patterns65%
58 question(s), alliteration: "markets move", alliteration: "barclays brief"
Formulaic Phrases7%
at the end of the day, you know what, i mean

Literate Indicators

Hedging11%
may, appears, maybe
Passive Voice6%
be premised, been collected, are concerned
Abstract Nouns22%
investment, business, chase.com/business
Subordination6%
because, since, until
Sentence Length39%
Avg: 14.7 words/sentence
Word Complexity47%
investment, analyze, anticipate
Academic Markers0%
Impersonal Style36%
574 personal pronouns found
Descriptive Style79%
apply, really, actually

Description

The 1970s were a pretty eventful time in markets. There was high inflation, the end of the gold standard, and a stock market crash. There was also a bunch of ideas coming out of the University of Chicago that would go on to be famous and highly influential for investors. Perhaps the most prominent is the Efficient Market Hypothesis, posited by Nobel Laureate Eugene Fama, which says that markets are right and it's useless for investors to try to outguess them. Fama later teamed up with David Booth, the founder of Dimensional Fund Advisors, and has been a longtime collaborator with the firm, which now has $777 billion under management. Today, they're releasing a documentary directed by Errol Morris and called "Tune Out the Noise," which chronicles this important time. We speak to both of these investment legends about the development of their theories, how they put them into practice, subsequent criticism, and what comes next. Read more: Wall Street Math Wizards Are Decoding Private-Market Returns Upstarts Challenge a Foundation of Modern Investing Cliff Asness Says Markets Are Less Efficient — And Social Media May Be to Blame Odd Lots is coming to Washington, DC! Get your tickets for our Jones Act debate here.   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.