is random walk theory correct 
random walk theory is widely debated among financial economists and market practitioners while some agree with its basic tenets others have challenged its assumptions and have proposed alternative theories of how and why prices move some have pointed out instances where stock prices do not follow a random walk such as during bubbles or flash crashes in these cases prices may be driven more by emotional factors than by randomness the bottom linerandom walk theory claims that stock prices move randomly and are not influenced by their history because of this it is impossible to use past price action or fundamental analysis to predict future trends or price action if markets are indeed random then markets are efficient reflecting all available information the theory remains popular among economists however it has been criticized by technical and fundamental traders alike for being overly simplistic and discounting real world outperformance achieved by some traders 