Portfolio Theory Essay example

The excess return you earn by moving from a relatively risk-free investment to a risky investment is called the

Advisors and investors would do well to pay as much attention to the expected volatility of any portfolio or investment as they do to anticipated returns. Moreover, all things being equal, a new investment should only be added to a portfolio when it either reduces the expected risk for a targeted level of returns, or when it boosts expected portfolio returns without adding additional risk, as measured by the expected standard deviation of those returns. Lesson 2: Don’t assume bonds or international stocks offer adequate portfolio diversification. As the world’s financial markets become more closely correlated, bonds and foreign stocks may not provide adequate portfolio diversification. Instead, advisors may want to recommend that suitable investors add modest exposure to nontraditional investments such as hedge funds, private equity and real assets. Such exposure may bolster portfolio returns, while reducing overall risk, depending on how it is structured. Lesson 3: Be disciplined in adhering to asset allocation targets. The long-term benefits of portfolio diversification will only be realized if investors are disciplined in adhering to asset allocation guidelines. For this reason, it is recommended that advisors regularly revisit portfolio allocations and rebalance

First, after selecting various assets and determining their monthly prices, the assets’ return is calculated. Asset return is the monthly percentage increase of the asset. Next, the expected return of the portfolio is needed. It is calculated as the weighted average of expected returns of the individual assets within the portfolio. Thereafter it is necessary to define and distinguish between correlation and covariance. Correlation is the measure of how two assets interact with one another, and it can vary between -1 and 1. A correlation of 1 indicates that the two

The goal of this paper is to explain why CCM’s aggressive program is a good alternative to any investor looking to diversify its portfolio. The paper will be divided into three distinct parts: the operational analysis, the quantitative analysis and a comparison against its peers (including the impact of CCM in a traditional portfolio).

In order to find the optimal portfolio allocation, the group needs to find the portfolio structured with lowest risk under a given return. This can be achieved by applying Mean-Variance Theory and Markowitz model find the efficient frontier, which yields the most optimal portfolio under given returns. It can be expressed in mathematical terms and solved by quadratic programming. [Appendix A]

Diversification of risk is not putting all your money into one thing, such all putting your money into all bonds. You can diversify your investments by investing in different things such as international stocks, DJIA, bonds, and different types of stocks.

Diversity investment among stock markets, bounds and nationally and internationally is the best me method of maintaining the risk of investment and expanding its growth. The fourth importance is the cost of single investment; the less money an investor pay; the more financial resources will have to take advantage on future investment opportunities that expand the return. Becker’s final advice of investment success was for investors to slick with their plan. “Lethargy bordering on sloth remains the cornerstone of our investment style”, Warren Buffett. Many investors get influenced by what goes around them and the media to end their investment prematurely or get involved in risky commitment outside of their goals.

Explain the historical relationships between risk and return for common stock versus corporate bonds. Explain how diversification helps in risk reduction in a portfolio. Support response with actual data and concepts learned in this course.

It would be great to live in a world where investing provided guaranteed payout with little or no risk, however, we all realize that is not the way investing works. Generally, the greater the risk, the greater potential for return or worse, loss. How we perceive and respond to risk is a very personal decision and there are several factors that go into making that decision. In this paper, I will discuss the risk of stock investing. There are two types of risk involved in investing in stock. One is diversifiable risk and is completely controlled by the investor. It means that a portfolio should be filled with stocks of varying degrees of risk. The other type of risk is market risk. The

a. Objective(s). It is out of doubt that no matter how diversified the portfolio is, systematic risk can never be eliminated. The risk associated with individual stocks can be reduced, but general market risks affect almost every stock. So it is important to diversify between different asset classes and industries as well. The key is to find a medium between risk and return. The objective of this paper is to discuss importance of diversification of investment portfolio within industries and project the theory on the example of two portfolios. The first portfolio tends to be undiversified and consists of shares of companies from banking sector. The undiversified portfolio is as follows:

As shown in the figure 1.1 (adapted from Stock Analyst K 2010), the efficient frontier and capital market line intersects at M. Along the efficient frontier line, there exists portfolios with highest returns at a given level of risk. These portfolios are categorized as efficient portfolios. Different investors have different tolerances levels relative to returns, and would pick an investment portfolio along the efficient frontier according to the amount of risk they are willing to uptake.

investment portfolio of several assets. The benefits of diversification were first formalized in 1952 by

During 1952, Markowitz came out with a theory based on diversified investment is able to construct the risk-averse investors. He diversified investment portfolio theory and efficiency of the priory rigorous mathematical tools as a means to demonstrate risk-averse investors in a number of risky assets in construct the optimal portfolio methods.

Diversification is a method of investing that been shown to increase portfolio return while reducing portfolio risk as measured by standard deviation. This method specifically increases the efficient frontier for investors. The challenge to an investing firm is an appetite by its customers for an ever increasing efficient frontier. One area to explore to obtain this increase is through further diversifying through international diversification.

If the assets exist to help meet a liability, the liability should be considered in the process; 3. Basing one’s decision solely on an asset allocation’s mean and variance is insufficient to base one’s decisions, in a world in which asset class returns are not normally distributed; and, 4. Most investors have multi-period objectives and the mean-variance framework is a single period model. These potential shortcomings are the likely reasons that practitioners have not fully embraced meanvariance optimization. For a number of practitioners, mean-variance optimization creates the illusion of quantitative sophistication; yet, in practice, asset allocations are developed using judgmental, ad hoc approaches. Recent advances significantly improve the quality of typical mean-variance optimizationbased asset allocations that should allow a far wider audience to realize the benefits of the Markowitz paradigm, or at least the intent of the paradigm. In this article, we focus on the first issue: the lack of diversification that can result from traditional meanvariance optimization. We begin with two examples in which traditional mean-variance optimization