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The Security Market Line ( Sml )

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(D) The Security Market Line The security market line (SML) is defined by Brigham and Houston (2009) as “an equation that shows the relationship between risk as measured by beta and the required rates of return on individual securities” (p. 253). The slope of the SML reflects the degree of risk aversion in the economy. The SML can be calculated by the equation below Required Return on Stock=Rf rate of return+ β*(Market Risk Premium) Figure 9 (page 27 – 29) shows the security market line input data and graph. The security market line equation is used on page 27 to calculate the required rate of return on each investment alternative. Each investment’s expected return is compared to the required return calculated by the SML. Based on whether or not the expected return is higher or lower than the required return will determine if the investment is overvalued, fairly valued, or undervalued. For example, page 27 shows that Gold is overvalued and Food is undervalued. As shown in Figure 1 (page 18), Alaska Gold has an expected return less than the T-bill. This makes sense because Alaska Gold has a negative beta, indicating that it moves in the opposite direction of the overall market. Negative beta stocks are used in an attempt to lower the overall rick of a portfolio by trying to generate a positive return during a recessionary time. If a full-blown recession hits the economy, gold is expected to return 26.0%. When analyzing the SML, it should be noted that betas are

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