One of MoneyWeek’s “Five of the best books of 2017” (chosen by Dr. Matthew Partridge)
One of Bloomberg’s Best Books of 2017, chosen by Vitor Constancio
A new theory should be able to capture all that its predecessors have to offer while adding new features. Lo's adaptive-markets hypothesis is just such a replacement. . . . This book is essential reading.
Andrew Lo's ambitious book offers a welcome, fresh look at how financial markets work and why they sometimes fail. . . . Adaptive Markets makes a valuable and welcome contribution, rewarding the reader by broadening and improving our understanding of finance and markets--in stable and unstable times.---Milton Ezrati, City Journal
By reading Adaptive Markets, investors and their advisors will benefit from a better understanding of the reasons, based in biology and human nature, that the market is not efficient.---Laurence B. Siegel, Advisor Perspectives
The financial markets we create similarly reflect 'principles of evolution--competition, innovation, reproduction and adaptation'. In this important book, Lo of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology demonstrates the radical implications of this insight.---Martin Wolf, Financial Times
Mr. Lo makes a convincing argument and he also uses the book to lay out some interesting ideas--such as a huge, diversified fund that would invest in a range of potential cancer treatments.
[Adaptive Markets] doubles as a kind of intellectual history of the global financial system and the innovations that have shaped it. . . . The book abounds with interesting anecdotes drawn from many fields, including the author's own experiences.
One of the Microsoft Best Business Books of 2017
"Adaptive Markets will appeal to anyone who distrusts dogmatic economic theories and thirsts for a coherent view of how market economies produce both great gain and great pain for societies. Andrew Lo integrates a deep understanding of finance with a broad knowledge of biology, psychology, and ethics to offer a tantalizing vision of how financial engineering could become a powerful force for a more just, healthy, and prosperous world."—Peter Hancock, President and CEO, AIG
One of Exame’s “9 books that will help you get rich in 2018”
One of The Wall Street Journal’s What Business Leaders Read in 2017
Andrew Lo's Adaptive Markets is a masterly synthesis of the traditional, rationality-based approach and new approaches based on psychology and neuroscience, evolutionary theory, and techniques such as computer simulations and artificial intelligence.---Diane Coyle, Project Syndicate
"Andrew Lo is a brilliant financial economist, visionary innovator, bold contrarian, gifted writer, and an unrelenting idealist. These traits are evident in this wonderful book, which traces the ‘evolutionary explosion of financial innovation' that began with Vanguard's creation of the first index mutual fund in 1974, tracking the S&P 500 Index. I continue to hold to index funds, but Dr. Lo's book persuades me to keep a mind that is open—or at least ajar—to the new world of investment technology, investor preferences, and transaction efficiency, and to the wisdom of those who are smarter than I am."—John C. Bogle, founder of the Vanguard Group and the First Index Mutual Fund, and author of The Little Book of Common Sense Investing
Lo writes beautifully, and the book reads quickly. . . . Powerful, ageless, memorable, and fun.---Janet J. Mangano, Financial Analysts Journal
"This is a wonderful book. Andrew Lo traces a journey in which he reconsiders rationality in economics, moving from the efficient market hypothesis to his own Adaptive Markets Hypothesis through psychology, neuroscience, biology, and studies of financial innovations and crises. The book presents many valuable findings and is also full of emotion—enthusiasm, joy, frustration, and pain. It is itself a manifestation of the important finding that rational thinking and emotion go together."Nobuhiro Kiyotaki, Princeton University
Lo's new book is a fascinating exploration of the evolution of financial innovation. It’s filled with fascinating stories of what drives human behavior and, ultimately, markets.---Larry Swedroe, ETF.com,
"Andrew Lo combines wonderfully broad scholarship and a delightfully instructive style to present dramatically new perspectives on how markets work and how they can be regulated more effectively. This important book will teach and entertain, and should influence those charged with keeping markets healthy."—Simon A. Levin, Princeton University
One of The New York Times Deal Book “Business Books Worth Reading” 2017 (chosen by Andrew Sorkin)
[Adaptive Markets] is a summation of developments in fields ranging from economics and behavioral finance to neuroscience and artificial intelligence--all influences on the adaptive markets hypothesis Lo proposes as a framework for finance that considers both rational and irrational behavior.
Winner of the 2018 PROSE Award for Business, Finance & Management, Association of American Publishers
"We tell stories, we learn from them, and we make them up. In this magnificent book, Andrew Lo explains how our attraction to stories drives markets, explains past catastrophes, and suggests future opportunities for world-saving financial engineering. And he packages it all in fascinating stories of his own."—Patrick Henry Winston, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
When Lo writes, investors should listen. . . . I have never before read a book with so many memorable quotes that enrich its content and meaning.---Janet J. Mangano, Financial Analysts Journal
This new book will become another essential read for anybody interested in financial markets. . . . [It] is a thoroughly interesting and enjoyable read. It is not technical, the explanations are super-clear, and there is some excellent story telling.
One of the CNBC 13 Best Business Books of 2017
One of Bloomberg’s Best Books of 2017, chosen by Robert Shiller
Using research in evolutionary biology, psychology, neuroscience and artificial intelligence, Mr. Lo . . . explains how human behavior shapes the markets, leading to swings between stability and instability, profit and loss, innovation and regulation.
One of Financial Times (FT.com) Best Books of 2017: Economics
Finalist for the 2017 TIAA Paul A. Samuelson Award, TIAA Institute
Mr. Lo’s book offers a unique way to think about the idea of ‘efficient markets’--a new hypothesis worth considering about how markets can be rational and irrational at the same time.---Andrew Ross Sorkin, New York Times
Winner of the 2018 PROSE Award for Excellence in Social Sciences, Association of American Publishers
[Lo] has a knack for providing a telling anecdote or story to illustrate his point. More important, he also avoids being condescending or triumphalist.---Matthew Partridge, Money Week
One of Foreign Affairs Best of Books 2017 – Economic, Social, and Environment / Finance
[A] remarkable new book. . . . Lo's book will be read and read widely. . . . His insights should allow investors and regulators alike to manage risks better. They should read it.---John Authers, Financial Times
Shortlisted for the 2017 Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award
