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.
Asset allocation decisions made by an investor are considered more important than other decisions such as market timing or security selection. In the research provided by Hensel (1991), performance attribution is one of the main components when choosing the right assets in a portfolio. The impact of any investment decision can be measured by comparing its outcome with the outcome of some alternative decision. Furthermore, according to Hensel (1991), every investor has to incorporate the minimum-risk portfolio, which is a combination of securities or asset classes that reduces the uncertainty of future portfolio returns to a minimum.
In the paper published by Xiong (2010), it is presented that a portfolio’s total return can be disintegrated into three components: the market return, the asset allocation policy return in excess of the market return, and the return from active portfolio management. The asset allocation policy return refers to the fixed asset allocati...
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Asset Allocation Definition | Investopedia. (n.d.). Investopedia - Educating the world about
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Ibbotson, R. G. (2010). The Importance of Asset Allocation. Financial Analysts Journal, 66(2),
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Lynott J. William. (2005).Proper asset allocation ensures successful portfolio performance.
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Xiong, J. X., Ibbotson, R. G., Idzorek, T. M., & Chen, P. (2010). The Equal Importance of Asset
Allocation and Active Management. Financial Analysts Journal, 66(2), 1-9.
The dissimilarity among these two values is essential, particularly when considering investments. As it can be a perfect guide when dealings in the real market, the financial managers are not exempted to ignore the theoretical value by the fact that they vary.
The capital asset pricing model (CAPM) is a mathematical model that offers an explanation about the relationship between investment risk and return. By dividing the covariance of an asset's return by the variance of the market, an asset value can be determined. To ascertain the risk level of a particular asset, the market is evaluated as a whole. Unlike the DCF model, the time value of money is not considered. This model assumes the investors understands the risk involved and trades without cost. Two types of risk is associated with the CAPM model: unsystematic and systematic. Unsystematic risks are company-specific risk. For example, the value of an asset can increase or decrease by changes in upper management or bad publicity. To prevent total loss, the model suggests diversification. Systematic risk is due to general economic uncertainty. The marketplace compensates investors for taking systematic risk but not for taking specific risk. This is because specific risk can be diversified away. Systematic risk can be measured using beta. For example, suppose a stock has a beta of 0.8. The market has an expected annual return of 0.12 and the risk-free rate is .02 Then the stock has an expected one-year return of 0.10.
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.
William Sharpe, Gordon J. Alexander, Jeffrey W Bailey. Investments. Prentice Hall; 6 edition, October 20, 1998
The execution of our investment strategy occurred in three stages. First, we invested in t-bills and bonds according to our original set out investment plan. This was to decrease potential losses and risk associated with the declining equity market. Therefore, we invested about two hundred thousand of our funds into these low risk assets to maintain buying power. Due to inflation, we did not want to lose buying power by leaving funds in an account without earning interest. Further, we invested a small portion of funds into the commodity market. With a slumping equity market and a positive outlook on the gold commodity, we invested in Gold Corporation at the same time we invested in income assets.
The following essay will expand on the usefulness and flaws of CAPM and other asset evaluation frameworks and in the end showing that despite all the evidence against CAPM it is still a useful model for determining asset investments.
Asset allocation is the process of deciding how to distribute an investor’s wealth among different countries and assets classes for investment purposes. An asset class is comprised of securities that have similar characteristics, attributes and risk/ return relationships. In other word, asset allocation defined as investing money or well diversified in different classes of assets, as stocks, bonds and money market funds.
Firstly, this paper used empirical data to prove the existing of connections between personal preferences of individual investors and the portfolio choosing decision, which strongly challenged the classic portfolio choosing theory which was based on the mean-variance preferences, and provided new evidence for the irrational side of investors. The dataset this paper used was both enrich and unique, including market level, individual level and macro level, which made his argument very solid from all aspects that may involving in. Another brilliant part was that the author took one step further and investigated what constituted of lottery preference, both on micro and macro side. Both individual features and the society environment could have much influence on the stock market. The result of this paper suggested that the connections between the society environment and the stock market may be much stronger that we use to think.
Total Shareholder Return (TSR) is a critical key performance indicator (KPI) to measure portfolio performance as well as evaluate investment decision in firms which forms the crux of the research presented in this paper. TSR is a compounded and annualised measure including dividends paid to shareholders by Temasek however, it does not include capital injections by shareholders. Temasek is a long term investor and tracks its TSR over various time periods. Following gives Temasek’s portfolio performance
When it comes to investing money, investors need to have a portfolio that suits their personal goals and needs. Someone who is about to retire will have different requirements than an investor who just entered the workforce. As investors work with their financial adviser, they should make sure to express their personal requirements and use the following guide to intelligent investing. How Should Assets Be Allocated?
Graham advocated that investors should diversify their portfolio in stocks and bonds. By doing so the investor can maintain their capital as well achieve growth in the portfolio (Myers, 2009). To overcome the market volatility investors should diverse their portfolios by investing in bonds and stocks. Graham urged the investors to avoid growth stocks since they underperform and are overpriced over a
A crucial reason in favour of mental accounting and overconfidence is decision efficiency. Real-life investing scenario changes every moment Time-consuming and systematic thinking process seldom is allowed during the intense decision-making (Stewart Jr et al., 1999, Busenitz and Barney, 1997). Additionally, the ‘small world’ used by the economic theory, which only applied to strict condition, is not necessarily applicable in the practical investment decision. As the assumption in those analysis approach may not conform with real life well and for most of times, cognitive heuristics is more suitable for the uncertainty(Gigerenzer and Gaissmaier, 2011). However, there is also a few argument against them, for it may hinder people from examining their investment choice thoroughly. Research shows that they did not perceive themselves as risk taker, but in fact, they are more likely to take relatively low return alternatives as ‘opportunities’, indicating that they are risk-taking to a great extent(Palich and Ray Bagby, 1995). As a result of the illusion created by such factors, decision makers tend to be narrow-minded in composing strategies and unable to bring enough information into thought(Schwenk, 1988). It was demonstrated by several researches that decisions made by means of biases and heuristics impose
Our understanding and the concept of investment in behavioural finance combines economics and psychology to analyse how and why investors make final decision. As an investor one’s decision to invest is fully influence by different type of attitudes of behavioural and psychological ( Ricciardi & Simon, 2000). Yet, in order to maximize their financial goal, investors must have a good investment planning. Furthermore , to gain a good investment planning , there must be a good decision making among investors. They have to choose the right investment plan I order to manage the resources for different type of investments not only to gain profit wise but also to avoid the risk that occur from investment.
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,
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.