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The fundamentals of portfolio management
Critically analyse the relevance and usefulness of modern portfolio theory
Investment and portfolio management chapter 1
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Investing in financial markets can carry risk and long term adverse effects. When deciding to participate in financial markets, an investor must educate themselves in order to financial blunders. At the forefront of financial theory, Modern Portfolio Theory asses the maximum expected portfolio return for a given amount of portfolio risk. Within the framework of Modern Portfolio Theory, an optimal portfolio is constructed on the basis of asset allocation, diversification and rebalancing. In conjunction with diversification, asset allocation is the strategy of dividing a portfolio across various asset classes. Furthermore, optimal diversification involves holding multiple instruments that are not positively correlated. While diversification and asset allocation can improve returns, systematic and unsystematic risks remain inherent in investing. Introduced by Harry Markowitz in 1952, the concept of an efficient frontier identifies an optimal level of diversification and asset …show more content…
Simply put, both alpha and beta are risk ratios designed to determine the risk reward profile of investment …show more content…
CAPM helps investors measure the investment risk and expected return to appropriately price the asset. In particular, investors must be compensated for the time value of money and risk. The risk free rate, typically a Treasure Bond or Stock Index, represents the time value of money for placing money in any investment. Simply put, the mean return of a security should be linearly related to its Beta coefficients. This shows that riskier investments earn a premium over the benchmark rate. Following a risk to reward framework, the expected return, under a CAPM model, will be higher when investor bares higher
By focusing on only one risk, for example peer risk, it leaves the company up for even more risk in its assets and pension obligations. Figure 1 illustrates that these risks do indeed rely on one another. When investors try to only minimize one of the risks (small circles) stockholders leave themselves open / exposed to the other two scopes of risk: Beta and Matching (ALM).
Alpha and beta have been thrown around since the early pickup artist (PUA) and game days so far as I can tell, but my first conception of the alpha-beta dichotomy came from Roissy/Heartiste. In the Chateau, alpha and beta function as social roles on a sliding scale
What do you understand by the phrase “stakeholder analysis”? Attempt a stakeholder analysis of an organisation that you are closely associated with.
Primarily, financial managers look at the market price in maximizing the value of the firm. The market value is the present value of the net cash flow divided buy the risk. Investors consider the firm’s future and present earnings, disadvantages or risks and other factors that will influence a firm prior to deciding to create an investment decision and the market price of the stock that will reflect all the information considering these factors (Arain, 2011).
The efficient market hypothesis has been one of the main topics of academic finance research. The efficient market hypotheses also know as the joint hypothesis problem, asserts that financial markets lack solid hard information in making decisions. Efficient market hypothesis claims it is impossible to beat the market because stock market efficiency causes existing share prices to always incorporate and reflect all relevant information . According to efficient market hypothesis stocks always trade at their fair value on stock exchanges, making it impossible for investors to either purchase undervalued stocks or sell stocks for inflated prices. As such, it should be impossible to outperform the overall market through expert stock selection or market timing, and that the only way an investor can possibly obtain higher returns is by purchasing riskier investments . In reality once cannot always achieve returns in excess of average market return on a risk-adjusted basis. They have been numerous arguments against the efficient market hypothesis. Some researches point out the fact financial theories are subjective, in other words they are ideas that try to explain how markets work and behave.
When discussing the cost of equity capital, or the rate of return required by investors for their share expenses, there are three main models widely used for analyzation. These models are the dividend growth model, which operates on the variable of growth and future trends, the capital asset pricing model (CAPM), which operates on the premise that higher returns are a result of higher risk, and the arbitrage pricing theory (APT), which has a more flexible set of criteria than CAPM and takes advantage of mispriced securities
Ross, S.A., Westerfield, R.W., Jaffe, J. and Jordan, B.D., 2008. Modern Financial Management: International Student Edition. 8th Edition. New York: McGraw-Hill Companies.
However, EMH has been the most controversial subject of research in the field of financial economics during the last 40 years. “Behavioural finance, however, is now seriously challenging this premise by arguing that people are clearly not rational” (Ross, (2002)). Behavioral finance uses facts from psychology and other human sciences to explain human investors’ behaviors. 2. What is the difference between a MAIN BODY A generation ago, it was generally believed that security markets were efficient in adjusting information about individual stocks and the stock market as a whole (Malkiel, (2003)).
This assignment is concerned with your understanding of the key issues relative to portfolio analysis and investment. In completing this assignment you are to limit your scope to the US stock markets only. Use the Cybrary, the Internet, and course resources to write a 2-page essay which you will use with new clients of your financial planning business which addresses the following issues and/or practices:
To maximize optimum performance of our investment portfolio, we placed a certain percentage of equity in different sectors of the stock market.
Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) is an ex ante concept, which is built on the portfolio theory established by Markowitz (Bhatnagar and Ramlogan 2012). It enhances the understanding of elements of asset prices, specifically the linear relationship between risk and expected return (Perold 2004). The direct correlation between risk and return is well defined by the security market line (SML), where market risk of an asset is associated with the return and risk of the market along with the risk free rate to estimate expected return on an asset (Watson and Head 1998 cited in Laubscher 2002).
According to Investopedia (Asset Allocation Definition, 2013), asset allocation is an investment strategy that aims to balance risk and reward by distributing a portfolio’s assets according to an individual’s goals, risk tolerance and investment horizon. There are three main asset classes: equities, fixed-income, cash and cash equivalents; but they all have different levels of risk and return. A prudent investor should be careful in allocating each asset class to his portfolio. Proper asset allocation is a highly debatable subject and is not designed equally for everybody, but is rather based on the desires and needs of the individual investor. This paper discusses the importance of asset allocation, the differences and the proper diversification within the portfolio.
Chapter 11 closes our discussion with several insights into the efficient market theory. There have been many attempts to discredit the random walk theory, but none of the theories hold against empirical evidence. Any pattern that is noticed by investors will disappear as investors try to exploit it and the valuation methods of growth rate are far too difficult to predict. As we said before the random walk concludes that no patterns exist in the market, pricing is accurate and all information available is already incorporated into the stock price. Therefore the market is efficient. Even if errors do occur in short-run pricing, they will correct themselves in the long run. The random walk suggest that short-term prices cannot be predicted and to buy stocks for the long run. Malkiel concludes the best way to consistently be profitable is to buy and hold a broad based market index fund. As the market rises so will the investors returns since historically the market continues to rise as a whole.
I am currently majoring in Finance Management. Most of the time people think of finance as just managing money. However, finance is needed for so much more! The finance industry deals with starting businesses, developing new products, expanding markets, as well as everyday things like saving for retirement, purchasing a home, and even insurance. The stock market, asset allocation, portfolio analysis, and electronic commerce are all key aspects in finance. In this paper, I will explain how these features play a vital role in the industry, along with the issues that come with these factors.
The Modern portfolio theory {MPT}, "proposes how rational investors will use diversification to optimize their portfolios, and how an asset should be priced given its risk relative to the market as a whole. The basic concepts of the theory are the efficient frontier, Capital Asset Pricing Model and beta coefficient, the Capital Market Line and the Securities Market Line. MPT models the return of an asset as a random variable and a portfolio as a weighted combination of assets; the return of a portfolio is thus also a random variable and consequently has an expected value and a variance.