Read the following article and summarize the meaning of the "efficient market hypothesis" Professor Merton says.

And judge whether the real capital market is efficient in his standards.

What you parents are expecting from your investment, I can't say, of course. But if you hope to acquire a lifetime supply of valuable, free investment advice, forget it. Your newly minted M.B.A.'s will not be offering you a steady stream of sure-fire hot stock picks. And don't think they're simply being stuck-up or ungrateful in refusing to share with you the secrets of the craft. They've learned from me and some of their other professors in the Chicago financial economics tradition that an M.B.A. degree conveys no advantage in stock picking or market timing. I know that will be hard for some of you parents to accept. It certainly was hard for my father to understand when I got my degree, which was not an M.B.A., but an even loftier Ph.D. in economics. Then, as now, many wondered what professional economists were good for, after all, if they couldn't forecast stock prices. My father never gave up hope that someday I would come up with valuable nuggets of economic wisdom for him. He'd say: "Amalgamated Widgits sure has some great new products on its drawing boards. I'm thinking of buying in now and riding the stock up before these new products actually hit the stores. What do you think?" "Sounds exciting, Dad," I'd say. "But where did you learn about all these great new products?" "Oh, I read about them in the Wall Street Journal," he'd say. "Or perhaps Barron's or Fortune. What do you think?" Then I would put on a look of mock disappointment and say, "Oh, sorry Dad, it was a great idea, but you are too late. If you read it in the Wall Street Journal (or Barron's or Fortune), everybody else has read it, too. The information about those new products is already built in to the prices you will have to pay for the stock." And, putting aside technical jargon, that's really the essence of what has come to be called the "efficient markets" doctrine - a doctrine long identified with the Chicago financial economics tradition. In an efficient market all publicly available information is quickly incorporated intoprices. Information is a valuable commodity after all, and like any other valuable commodity, society won't waste it. So an investor, like my father - and like some other fathers here today - whose investment ideas come only from the daily press or from listening to Wall Street Week can't beat the market that way. They're always going to be too late.