FIN 534 Week 4 Homework Assignment Chapter 6
1. You are considering investing in one of the these three stocks
If you are a strict risk minimizer, you would choose Stock ____ if it is to be held in isolation and Stock ____ if it is to be held as part of a well-diversified portfolio.
a. A; B.
b. B; A.
c. C; A.
d. C; B.
e. A; A
2. Your friend is considering adding one additional stock to a 3 stock portfolio, to form a 4 stock portfolio. She is highly risk averse and has asked for your advice. The three stocks currently held all have b = 1.0, and they are perfectly positively correlated with the market. Potential new Stocks A and B both have expected returns of 15%, are in equilibrium, and are equally correlated with the market, with r = 0.75. However, Stock As standard deviation of returns is 12% versus 8% for
Stock B. Which stock should this investor add to his or her portfolio, or does the choice not matter?
a. Stock A.
b. Stock B.
c. Neither A nor B, as neither has a return sufficient to compensate for risk.
d. Add A, since its beta must be lower.
e. Either A or B, i.e., the investor should be indifferent between the two
3. Which of the following is NOT a potential problem when estimating and using betas, i.e., which statement is FALSE?
a. Sometimes, during a period when the company is undergoing a change such as toward more leverage or riskier assets, the calculated beta will be drastically different from the true or expected future beta.
b. The beta of an average stock, or the market, can change over time, sometimes drastically.
c. Sometimes the past data used to calculate beta do not reflect the likely risk of the firm for the future because conditions have changed.
d. All of the statements above are true.
e. The fact that a security or project may not have a past history that can be used as the basis for calculating beta
4. Stock As beta is 1.7 and Stock Bs beta is 0.7. Which of the following statements must be true about these securities? (Assume market equilibrium.)
a. Stock B must be a more desirable addition to a portfolio than A.
b. Stock A must be a more desirable addition to a portfolio than B.
c. The expected return on Stock A should be greater than that on B.
d. The expected return on Stock B should be greater than that on A.
e. When held in isolation, Stock A has more risk than Stock B
5. Which of the following statements is CORRECT?
a. If you found a stock with a zero historical beta and held it as the only stock in your portfolio, you would by definition have a riskless portfolio.
b. The beta coefficient of a stock is normally found by regressing past returns on a stock against past market returns. One could also construct a scatter diagram of returns on the stock versus those on the market, estimate the slope of the line of best fit, and use it as beta. However, this historical beta may differ from the beta that exists in the future.
c. The beta of a portfolio of stocks is always larger than the betas of any of the individual stocks.
d. It is theoretically possible for a stock to have a beta of 1.0. If a stock did have a beta of 1.0, then, at least in theory, its required rate of return would be equal to the risk free (default free) rate of return, rRF.
e. The beta of a portfolio of stocks is always smaller than the betas of any of the individual stocks