## **Learning Outcomes**

After reading this article, you will be able to explain the different forms of market efficiency in financial markets, assess their implications for share valuation and investor strategy, and recognise how behavioral trends can affect asset prices. You will also be able to relate these forms to ACCA Financial Management (FM) exam scenarios.

## **ACCA Financial Management (FM) Syllabus**

For ACCA Financial Management (FM), you are required to understand how efficient markets function and how this influences financial decision-making. Specifically, this article covers:

- The concept and significance of market efficiency in financial markets
- The distinguishing features of weak form, semi-strong form, and strong form efficiency
- The impact of market efficiency on share pricing and investment analysis
- The behavioural explanations for market price movements
- Practical issues in applying valuation methods in efficient and inefficient markets

## **Test Your Knowledge**

_Attempt these questions before reading this article. If you find some difficult or cannot remember the answers, remember to look more closely at that area during your revision._

1. Which form of market efficiency suggests that share prices reflect all publicly available information?
2. True or false? In a strong form efficient market, no investor can consistently earn excess returns even using insider information.
3. What is the primary implication for investors if a market is semi-strong form efficient?
4. Define the random walk theory in the context of financial markets.

## **Introduction**

Market efficiency is a core concept in financial management, determining how information is processed and reflected in security prices. Efficient markets affect valuation methods, investment strategies, and management decisions. Understanding the forms of efficiency, their practical implications, and limitations is a key ACCA FM exam requirement.

## Market Efficiency: The Concept

An efficient market quickly incorporates all available information into security prices. As soon as new data emerges, prices adjust, leaving no predictable way to earn greater than normal returns by trading on known information.

> **Key Term: Market efficiency**
> The extent to which security prices in a financial market fully and fairly reflect all available information at any given time.

A perfectly efficient market means prices are always “fair” and no systematic method can be used to beat the market.

### The Efficient Market Hypothesis (EMH)

EMH states that all known information is already included in current prices. As a result, only new, unpredictable information will move these prices.

> **Key Term: Efficient Market Hypothesis (EMH)**
> The theory that security prices reflect all relevant information, making it impossible to consistently achieve abnormal returns.

### Forms of Market Efficiency

There are three commonly tested forms of market efficiency:

#### Weak Form Efficiency

The weak form asserts that current prices reflect all information from past price movements and volumes. Technical analysis and chart reading are ineffective—future price trends cannot be predicted from the past.

> **Key Term: Weak form efficiency**
> A market where security prices reflect all information contained in historical prices and trading volumes.

####

> **Key Term: Semi-strong form efficiency**
> A market where prices reflect all publicly available information, including historical prices and newly released news.
>
> **Key Term: Strong form efficiency**
> A market where prices reflect all information, both public and private, even that known only to insiders.

### **Worked Example 1.1**

**A listed company releases its annual report, showing higher than expected profits. Within minutes, its share price rises significantly and stays at the new level. What does this suggest about the efficiency of the market?**

> **Answer:**
> The rapid price adjustment illustrates semi-strong form efficiency, where all public information—including new financial results—is immediately and rationally incorporated into the share price.

### Implications for Investors and Valuation

- **Weak form:** Chart-based strategies do not provide abnormal returns, but using public news could.
- **Semi-strong form:** Fundamental analysis is ineffective; only genuinely new, non-public information might help.
- **Strong form:** No investor, including insiders, can reliably outperform the market.

### **Worked Example 1.2**

**An investor consistently makes profits by trading on non-public merger announcements ahead of official news. Which form(s) of efficiency does this contradict?**

> **Answer:**
> This contradicts strong form efficiency, since profits are made using private (insider) information. It does not contradict semi-strong or weak forms, which do not claim all private information is quickly reflected in prices.

### Price Reactions: The Random Walk

If markets are efficient, share prices follow a “random walk”—future movements cannot be predicted using past trends. Prices change only in response to unexpected new information.

> **Key Term: Random walk theory**
> The belief that share price changes are random and unpredictable, as they reflect only unforeseen new information.

### Practical Issues: Market Imperfections

In reality, markets are not perfectly efficient. Barriers can delay information processing. Small or illiquid markets may behave inefficiently. Thin trading, regulatory delays, or poor information flows can all create pricing anomalies.

### Behavioural Finance and Pricing Anomalies

Sometimes, investor behaviour leads to asset prices diverging from their fundamental values. Psychological trends such as herding, overconfidence, or short-term panic can temporarily cause inefficient prices.

> **Key Term: Behavioural finance**
> The study of how psychological factors and biases influence investor decisions and market price movements.

### **Worked Example 1.3**

**During a rapid surge in technology company shares, prices increase far beyond reasonable valuation measures, driven by widespread investor excitement and fear of missing out. What does this illustrate?**

> **Answer:**
> This is an example of a 'bubble'—a behavioural phenomenon where herding causes prices to depart from levels justified by fundamental information, indicating temporary market inefficiency.

### **Exam Warning**

> Misunderstanding the forms of efficiency is a frequent exam error. Remember: weak form = past prices only, semi-strong = all public info, strong = all information including insider knowledge.

## **Summary**

Market efficiency describes how rapidly and accurately prices reflect information in financial markets. Weak, semi-strong, and strong forms differ by the breadth of information included. In most developed equity markets, semi-strong efficiency is usually assumed. However, price anomalies and irrational behaviour can cause short-term inefficiency and affect valuation models.

## **Key Point Checklist**

_This article has covered the following key knowledge points:_

- Define market efficiency and its relevance to price formation
- Explain the Efficient Market Hypothesis (EMH)
- Distinguish between weak, semi-strong, and strong forms of efficiency
- Illustrate the implications of efficiency for investment and valuation methods
- Identify the role of behavioural finance in price anomalies

## **Key Terms and Concepts**

- Market efficiency
- Efficient Market Hypothesis (EMH)
- Weak form efficiency
- Semi-strong form efficiency
- Strong form efficiency
- Random walk theory
- Behavioural finance

Financial markets and institutions - Market efficiency forms and implications