ASSIGNMENT

Assignment



Assignment

1.For each of the scenarios below, explain whether or not it represents a diversifiable or an undiversifiable risk. Please consider the issues from the viewpoint of investors. Explain your reasoning

There's a substantial unexpected increase in inflation.

Undiversified Risk

There's a major recession in the U.S.

Undiversified Risk

A major lawsuit is filed against one large publicly traded corporation.

Diversified Risk

2. Use the CAPM to answer the following questions:

a. Find the Expected Rate of Return on the Market Portfolio given that the Expected Rate of Return on Asset "i" is 12%, the Risk-Free Rate is 4%, and the Beta (b) for Asset "i" is 1.2.

E(Ri) = .04+1.2(.12)

E(Ri) = 1.8%

b. Find the Risk-Free Rate given that the Expected Rate of Return on Asset "j" is 9%, the Expected Return on the Market Portfolio is 10%, and the Beta (b) for Asset "j" is 0.8.c.

Rf = Es - Bs(Rm-Rf)

Rf = .1+.09(.8)

Rf = 17.2%

c. What do you think the Beta (ß) of your portfolio would be if you owned half of all the stocks traded on the major exchanges? Explain.

An asset has a Beta of zero if its returns change independently of changes in the market's returns. A positive beta means that the asset's returns generally follow the market's returns, in the sense that they both tend to be above their respective averages together, or both tend to be below their respective averages together. A negative beta means that the asset's returns generally move opposite the market's returns: one will tend to be above its average when the other is below its average.

The beta coefficient is a key parameter in the capital asset pricing model (CAPM). It measures the part of the asset's statistical variance that cannot be removed by the diversification provided by the portfolio of many risky assets, because of the correlation of its returns with the returns of the other assets that are in the portfolio. Beta can be estimated for individual companies using regression analysis against a stock market index.

By definition, the market itself has a beta of 1.0, and individual stocks are ranked according to how much they deviate from the macro market (for simplicity purposes, the S&P 500 is usually used as a proxy for the market as a whole). A stock whose returns vary more than the market's returns over time can have a beta whose absolute value is greater than 1.0 (whether it is, in fact, greater than 1.0 will depend on the correlation of the stock's returns and the market's returns). A stock whose returns vary less than the market's returns has a beta with an absolute value less than 1.0.

A stock with a beta of 2 has returns that change, on average, by twice the magnitude of the overall market's returns; when the market's return falls or rises by 3%, the stock's return will fall or rise (respectively) by 6% on average. (However, because beta also depends on the correlation of returns, there can be considerable variance about that average; the higher the correlation, the ...