Everyone recognizes that's a joke because obviously the number and shape of the pieces doesn't affect the size of the pizza. And similarly, the stocks, bonds, warrants, etc., issued don't affect the aggregate value of the firm.

Junk bonds prove there's nothing magical in a Aaa bond rating.

To beat the market you'll have to invest serious bucks to dig up information no one else has yet.

Arbitrage proof has since been widely used throughout finance and economics.

As an economics undergraduate, I also worked on a part-time basis in Cambridge, Massachusetts, for a company that was advising customers about portfolio decisions, writing reports.

But in practice, if often comes down to not suffering a loss as big as the huge gain you made a while ago.

I favour passive investing for most investors, because markets are amazingly successful devices for incorporating information into stock prices.