Portfolio Selection: Efficient Diversification of Investments, 1959

In Bill Sharpe's remarks at Harry Markowitz's Celebration of Life, he reflected on Markowitz's contributions to the field of financial economics. He identified Markowitz's 1959 book Portfolio Selection: Efficient Diversification of Investments as one that changed the investment world and helped start the academic field of financial economics; he credited it for investors thinking in terms of portfolios, rather than focusing on individual stocks and bonds. Sharpe then asked the question, "What if everyone were doing what Harry had said they should do?"