Mike Wants to Know How Many Licks It Takes to Get

question 104

Multiple Choice

Mike wants to know how many licks it takes to get to the center of his all-day sucker. He tells his friends that "one full gyration of the tongue around the outer surface of the lollipop" is what constitutes a "lick." In an informal way, Mike is offering a(n) :

• A)way to use casual observation to answer his question.
• B)way to eliminate the reactivity sometimes associated with observation.
• C)operational definition for the property he wants to measure.
• D)excuse for eating a lot of candy.

---

Definitions:

Semistrong-Form Market Efficiency

A theory stating that all publicly available information is already reflected in stock prices, thus making it impossible to achieve consistently higher returns.

Index Fund

A type of mutual fund or exchange-traded fund (ETF) designed to follow the components of a market index, such as the S&P 500, to provide broad market exposure with low operating expenses.

Serial Correlation

The association between successive observations of the same variable, such as stock returns, over time.

Tax-Loss Selling

The strategy of offloading securities at a loss in order to reduce the liability of capital gains tax.