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1. The stock of a technology company has an expected return of 15% and a standar

ID: 2648187 • Letter: 1

Question

1.

The stock of a technology company has an expected return of 15% and a standard deviation of 20% The stock of a pharmaceutical company has an expected return of 13% and a standard deviation of 18%. A portfolio consisting of 50% invested in each stock will have an expected

return of 14 % and a standard deviation

A) greater than the average of 20% and 18%.

B) the answer cannot be determined with the information given.

C) the average of 20% and 18%.

D) less than the average of 20% and 18%.

2.

You have gathered the following information concerning a particular investment and conditions in the market. Risk-free rate: 2.5%, Market return: 11.0%, Beta of investment: 1.35.

According to the Capital Asset Pricing Model, the required return for this investment is

A) 13.98%. B) 11.48%. C) 14.85%. D) 8.85%.

3?T/F) Adding stocks with higher standard deviations to a portfolio will necessarily increase the portfolio's risk.

4 (T/F) Modern portfolio theory seeks to minimize risk and maximize return by combining highly correlated assets.

Explanation / Answer

SOLUTION:

2. Calculation of Required return for the investment.

ra = rrf + Ba (rm-rrf)

ra = 0.025 + 1.35 (0.11 - 0.025)

ra = 0.025 + 0.11475

ra = 0.13975 or 13.98

Required return for the investment = a) 13.98%

3. True.

The standard deviation measures the fluctuations of the returns around the arithmetic average return of a investment. The higher the standard deviation the greater the variability or risk of the investments returns.

4. True.

The approach helps to maximize the portfolio expected return to a given amount of portfolio risk. Or it equivalent to minimizes the risk for a given level of expected return by carefully choosing the proportions of various assets.