Detecting True Alpha in Highly Competitive Markets

The efficient markets hypothesis says that financial markets incorporate all available information in real time to price securities competitively, eliminating opportunities to earn excess return. The Nobel Committee split its 2013 prize for Economic Sciences between proponents of both sides of the market efficiency debate. For investment practitioners, the real question is whether there are skilled investment managers who can capture risk-adjusted excess return (alpha) net-of-fees, and how to identify them. To investigate this question rigorously, one must employ methods that can attribute performance to risk, skill or luck.