Spin-offs, Ticker Symbols and Other Investment Anomalies

Do you think that equity asset prices are always fair? If so, then you’re a proponent of the Efficient Market Hypothesis (EMH) which states that prices accurately reflect all the available information out there. 1 This sounds appealing—and democratic to boot—except that in the real world, it just ain’t so. Market prices exhibit all kinds of weird and wonderful anomalies. Two familiar ones include the January Effect where asset prices pop, especially among the...