Portfolio managers versus the darts: evidence from the Wall Street Journal's Dartboard Column

Abstract

The possibility that professional stock analysts could be outperformed by throwing darts at the stock listing page has intrigued stock market enthusiasts for years. In this study, we examine the results from the Wall Street Journal's Investment Dartboard Columns and find that the experts outperform the darts by a wide margin and outperform five different market indices by a positive but statistically insignificant amount.