A Random Walk Down Wall Street, proposed that a blindfolded monkey throwing darts at a newspaper's financial pages could pick stocks as well as professional fund managers. This "Random Walk Theory" suggests stock prices are unpredictable, meaning active management rarely outperforms a passive, random strategy.
Real-World Trials: In a 1999 experiment, an orangutan named Jolyn at the San Francisco Chronicle outperformed all but one professional investor. Similarly, in 1997, a chimp named Orlando picked stocks that gained 60%.
Performance: A Yahoo Finance report indicated that in 98 out of 100 simulations, "monkey" portfolios beat the market from 1964 to 2010.