Q. Define Strong form efficiency?
In robustly efficient market finance directors will be alert to the fact that market prices are an accurate reflection of their company's financial prospects as well as that if they behave in a manner which results in bad financial decisions the share price will quickly fall to compensate for the worsening prospects.
This signifies that the effect of an efficient market on financial management is that it keeps managers alert to the consequences of their decisions. In an incompetent world prices may take a while to adjust to reflect poor planning or control but in a semi-strong or strong market environment this will not be true. It can therefore be said that the efficient markets hypothesis encourages higher quality financial management. In a alike vein it also serves to discourage the artificial manipulation of accounting information as the truth will quickly be realised and prices adjusted accordingly.