Monday, July 26, 2010

Chapter 6 study guide

RISK, RETURN, AND THE CAPITAL ASSET PRICING MODEL

Topical review
  • Identify and measure two sources of returns from investments – income and capital gains
  • Use probability distributions to measure expected return and stand-alone risk (standard deviation)
    • Interpret standard deviation
  • Explain the concept of risk aversion and how this leads to the risk-return trade-off in finance
  • Indicate why the concept of risk changes when viewed in a portfolio context (diversification)
  • Discuss the role of correlation in diversifying portfolios
  • Distinguish market risk and firm specific risk
  • Illustrate how diversification reduces firm specific risk
  • Define the beta of an investment and explain what it measures
  • Briefly illustrate how the beta of an investment is measured - no actual regressions are necessary
  • Describe the risk-reward trade-off embedded in CAPM
  • Use the security market line to determine if an investment is fairly priced - describe the market forces which bring an investment to equilibrium
Definitions
  • Risk concepts: probability distribution, expected return, stand-alone risk, variance, standard deviation, coefficient of variation, risk aversion, beta, systematic risk (a.k.a., market risk or beta risk), nonsystematic risk (a.k.a., firm specific risk or idiosyncratic risk), correlation, diversification
  • CAPM: market portfolio, market risk premium, security market line
Basic numerical problems from textbook

4, 7

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