To practitioners, finance theory especially random-walk theory and efficient-market theory appeared to be claiming that "the value of investment advice is zero," as one such advisor, Pierre Rinfret of Rinfret-Boston Associates, told a 1968 conference of 1,500 money managers. To Rinfret, the theory that led to this conclusion was fundamentally flawed: ". . . random-walk theory is irrelevant, it is impractical, it is logically inconsistent, it is conceptually weak, it is limited in scope, and it is technically deficient." Finance academics seemed to be saying, in an analogy drawn by Gilbert E. Kaplan, who chaired the conference, that one might just as well select stocks by throwing darts at the financial pages of a newspaper as take professional advice.

Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera, loc. 352