The Maximum-Entropy Distribution of the Future Market Price of a Stock
- 1 December 1973
- journal article
- Published by Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) in Operations Research
- Vol. 21 (6) , 1200-1211
- https://doi.org/10.1287/opre.21.6.1200
Abstract
This paper uses the principle of maximum entropy to construct a probability distribution of future stock price for a hypothetical investor having specified expectations. The result obtained is in good agreement with observations recorded in the literature. Thus, the paper concludes that the hypothetical individual investor is representative of a large class of investors. This new derivation of the well known random-walk theory of stock-price movements leads to an improved understanding of the model parameters by relating the variance of the random-walk process to the risk aversion of the investors. A practical use of the model is proposed to help the investor form an objective opinion of his skill.Keywords
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