MINI CASE

Chapter 6 (11ed. Ch.)4

Risk and Return: The Basics
Assume that you recently graduated with a major in finance, and you just landed a job as a
financial planner with Barney Smith Inc., a large financial services corporation. Your first
assignment is to invest $100,000 for a client. Because the funds are to be invested in a
business at the end of one year, you have been instructed to plan for a one-year holding
period. Further, your boss has restricted you to the following investment alternatives,
shown with their probabilities and associated outcomes. (Disregard for now the items at the
bottom of the data; you will fill in the blanks later.)

State of the
economy
Recession
Below avg
Average
Above avg
Boom
r-hat ( r )
Std dev ()
Coef of var (cv)
beta (b)

Returns On Alternative Investments

Estimated Rate Of Return
TAlta
Repo Am.
Market
2-stock
prob.
Bills
Inds
Men Foam portfolio portfolio
0.1
8.0% -22.0% 28.0% 10.0%* -13.0%
3.0%
0.2
8.0
-2.0
14.7
-10.0
1.0
0.4
8.0
20.0
0.0
7.0
15.0
10.0
0.2
8.0
35.0
-10.0
45.0
29.0
0.1
8.0
50.0
-20.0
30.0
43.0
15.0
1.7% 13.8%
15.0%
0.0
13.4
18.8
15.3
7.9
1.4
1.0
-0.86
0.68

*Note that the estimated returns of American Foam do not always move in the same
direction as the overall economy. For example, when the economy is below average,
consumers purchase fewer mattresses than they would if the economy was stronger.
However, if the economy is in a flat-out recession, a large number of consumers who were
planning to purchase a more expensive inner spring mattress may purchase, instead, a
cheaper foam mattress. Under these circumstances, we would expect American Foams
stock price to be higher if there is a recession than if the economy was just below average.
Barney Smiths economic forecasting staff has developed probability estimates for the
state of the economy, and its security analysts have developed a sophisticated computer
program which was used to estimate the rate of return on each alternative under each state
of the economy. Alta Industries is an electronics firm; Repo Men collects past-due debts;
and American Foam manufactures mattresses and other foam products. Barney Smith also
Mini Case: 4 - 1

maintains an index fund which owns a market-weighted fraction of all publicly traded
stocks; you can invest in that fund, and thus obtain average stock market results. Given
the situation as described, answer the following questions.
a.

What are investment returns? What is the return on an investment that costs
$1,000 and is sold after one year for $1,100?

Answer: Investment return measures the financial results of an investment. They may be
expressed in either dollar terms or percentage terms.
The dollar return is $1,100 - $1,000 = $100. The percentage return is
$100/$1,000 = 0.10 = 10%.
b.

1. Why is the t-bills return independent of the state of the economy? Do t-bills
promise a completely risk-free return?

Answer: The 8 percent t-bill return does not depend on the state of the economy because the
treasury must (and will) redeem the bills at par regardless of the state of the economy.
The t-bills are risk-free in the default risk sense because the 8 percent return will
be realized in all possible economic states. However, remember that this return is
composed of the real risk-free rate, say 3 percent, plus an inflation premium, say 5
percent. Since there is uncertainty about inflation, it is unlikely that the realized real
rate of return would equal the expected 3 percent. For example, if inflation averaged
6 percent over the year, then the realized real return would only be 8% - 6% = 2%,
not the expected 3%. Thus, in terms of purchasing power, t-bills are not riskless.
Also, if you invested in a portfolio of T-bills, and rates then declined, your
nominal income would fall; that is, t-bills are exposed to reinvestment rate risk. So,
we conclude that there are no truly risk-free securities in the United States. If the
treasury sold inflation-indexed, tax-exempt bonds, they would be truly riskless, but all
actual securities are exposed to some type of risk.
b.

2. Why are Alta Ind.s returns expected to move with the economy whereas Repo
Mens are expected to move counter to the economy?

Answer: Alta Industries returns move with, hence are positively correlated with, the economy,
because the firms sales, and hence profits, will generally experience the same type of
ups and downs as the economy. If the economy is booming, so will Alta. On the
other hand, Repo Men is considered by many investors to be a hedge against both bad
times and high inflation, so if the stock market crashes, investors in this stock should
do relatively well. Stocks such as Repo Men are thus negatively correlated with
(move counter to) the economy. (note: in actuality, it is almost impossible to find
stocks that are expected to move counter to the economy. Even Repo Men shares
have positive (but low) correlation with the market.)

Mini Case: 4 - 2

c.

Calculate the expected rate of return on each alternative and fill in the blanks on

the row for r in the table above.

Answer: The expected rate of return, r , is expressed as follows:

r=

P r .
i i

i =1

Here Pi is the probability of occurrence of the ith state, r i is the estimated rate of
return for that state, and n is the number of states. Here is the calculation for Alta
Inds.:

r Alta Inds

= 0.1(-22.0%) + 0.2(-2.0%) + 0.4(20.0%) + 0.2(35.0%) + 0.1(50.0%)

= 17.4%.

We use the same formula to calculate rs for the other alternatives:

r T-bills = 8.0%.

r Repo Men = 1.7%.

r Am Foam = 13.8%.

r M = 15.0%.

Mini Case: 4 - 3

d.

You should recognize that basing a decision solely on expected returns is only
appropriate for risk-neutral individuals. Since your client, like virtually
everyone, is risk averse, the riskiness of each alternative is an important aspect
of the decision. One possible measure of risk is the standard deviation of
returns.
1. Calculate this value for each alternative, and fill in the blank on the row for in
the table above.

Answer: The standard deviation is calculated as follows:

n

i =1

(r i - r ) Pi .
i

Alta = [(-22.0 - 17.4)2(0.1) + (-2.0 - 17.4)2(0.2) + (20.0 - 17.4)2(0.4)

+ (35.0 - 17.4)2(0.2) + (50.0 - 17.4)2(0.1)]0.5
= 401.4 = 20.0%.
Here are the standard deviations for the other alternatives:
T-bills = 0.0%.
Repo = 13.4%.
Am Foam = 18.8%.
M = 15.3%.
Mini Case: 4 - 4

d.

2. What type of risk is measured by the standard deviation?

Answer: The standard deviation is a measure of a securitys (or a portfolios) stand-alone risk.
The larger the standard deviation, the higher the probability that actual realized
returns will fall far below the expected return, and that losses rather than profits will
be incurred.

Mini Case: 4 - 5

d.

3. Draw a graph which shows roughly the shape of the probability distributions for
Alta Inds, Am Foam, and T-bills.

Answer:
Probability of
Occurrence

T-Bills

ALTA INDS

AM FOAM

-60

-45

-30

-15

15

30

45

60

Rate of Return (%)

Based on these data, Alta Inds is the most risky investment, t-bills the least risky.
e.

Suppose you suddenly remembered that the coefficient of variation (CV) is

generally regarded as being a better measure of stand-alone risk than the
standard deviation when the alternatives being considered have widely differing
expected returns. Calculate the missing CVs, and fill in the blanks on the row
for CV in the table above. Does the CV produce the same risk rankings as the
standard deviation?

Mini Case: 4 - 6

Answer: The coefficient of variation (CV) is a standardized measure of dispersion about the
expected value; it shows the amount of risk per unit of return.
CV =

CVT-bills = 0.0%/8.0% = 0.0.

CVAlta Inds = 20.0%/17.4% = 1.1.
CVRepo Men = 13.4%/1.7% = 7.9.
CVAm Foam = 18.8%/13.8% = 1.4.

Mini Case: 4 - 7

CVM = 15.3%/15.0% = 1.0.

When we measure risk per unit of return, Repo Men, with its low expected return,
becomes the most risky stock. The CV is a better measure of an assets stand-alone
risk than because CV considers both the expected value and the dispersion of a
distribution--a security with a low expected return and a low standard deviation could
have a higher chance of a loss than one with a high but a high r .
f.

Suppose you created a 2-stock portfolio by investing $50,000 in Alta Inds and
$50,000 in Repo Men.

1. Calculate the expected return ( r p), the standard deviation (p), and the
coefficient of variation (cvp) for this portfolio and fill in the appropriate blanks
in the table above.

Answer: To find the expected rate of return on the two-stock portfolio, we first calculate the
rate of return on the portfolio in each state of the economy. Since we have half of our
money in each stock, the portfolios return will be a weighted average in each type of
economy. For a recession, we have: r p = 0.5(-22%) + 0.5(28%) = 3%. We would do
similar calculations for the other states of the economy, and get these results:

Mini Case: 4 - 8

State
Recession
Below Average
Average
Above Average
Boom

Portfolio
3.0%
6.4
10.0
12.5
15.0

Now we can multiply probabilities times outcomes in each state to get the
expected return on this two-stock portfolio, 9.6%.
Alternatively, we could apply this formula,
R = wi x ri = 0.5(17.4%) + 0.5(1.7%) = 9.6%,
Which finds r as the weighted average of the expected returns of the individual
securities in the portfolio.
It is tempting to find the standard deviation of the portfolio as the weighted
average of the standard deviations of the individual securities, as follows:
p

wi(i) + wj(j) = 0.5(20%) + 0.5(13.4%) = 16.7%.

However, this is not correct--it is necessary to use a different formula, the one for
that we used earlier, applied to the two-stock portfolios returns.
The portfolios depends jointly on (1) each securitys and (2) the correlation
between the securities returns. The best way to approach the problem is to estimate
the portfolios risk and return in each state of the economy, and then to estimate p
with the formula. Given the distribution of returns for the portfolio, we can
calculate the portfolios and CV as shown below:
p = [(3.0 - 9.6)2(0.1) + (6.4 - 9.6)2(0.2) + (10.0 - 9.6)2(0.4)
+ (12.5 - 9.6)2(0.2) + (15.0 - 9.6)2(0.1)]0.5
= 3.3%.
CVp = 3.3%/9.6% = 0.3.

f.

2. How does the riskiness of this 2-stock portfolio compare with the riskiness of the
individual stocks if they were held in isolation?

Answer: Using either or CV as our stand-alone risk measure, the stand-alone risk of the
portfolio is significantly less than the stand-alone risk of the individual stocks. This
Mini Case: 4 - 9

is because the two stocks are negatively correlated--when Alta Inds is doing poorly,
Repo Men is doing well, and vice versa. Combining the two stocks diversifies away
some of the risk inherent in each stock if it were held in isolation, i.e., in a 1-stock
portfolio.
g.

Suppose an investor starts with a portfolio consisting of one randomly selected

stock. What would happen (1) to the riskiness and (2) to the expected return of
the portfolio as more and more randomly selected stocks were added to the
portfolio? What is the implication for investors? Draw a graph of the two
portfolios to illustrate your answer.

Answer:

Mini Case: 4 - 10

Density

Portfolio of stocks
with rp = 16%

One
Stock
0

16

Return

The standard deviation gets smaller as more stocks are combined in the portfolio, while r p
(the portfolios return) remains constant. Thus, by adding stocks to your portfolio, which
initially started as a 1-stock portfolio, risk has been reduced.
In the real world, stocks are positively correlated with one another--if the
economy does well, so do stocks in general, and vice versa. Correlation coefficients
between stocks generally range from +0.5 to +0.7. A single stock selected at random
would on average have a standard deviation of about 35 percent. As additional stocks
are added to the portfolio, the portfolios standard deviation decreases because the
added stocks are not perfectly positively correlated. However, as more and more
stocks are added, each new stock has less of a risk-reducing impact, and eventually
adding additional stocks has virtually no effect on the portfolios risk as measured by
. In fact, stabilizes at about 20.4 percent when 40 or more randomly selected
stocks are added. Thus, by combining stocks into well-diversified portfolios,
investors can eliminate almost one-half the riskiness of holding individual stocks.
(Note: it is not completely costless to diversify, so even the largest institutional
investors hold less than all stocks. Even index funds generally hold a smaller
portfolio which is highly correlated with an index such as the S&P 500 rather than
hold all the stocks in the index.)
The implication is clear: investors should hold well-diversified portfolios of
stocks rather than individual stocks. (In fact, individuals can hold diversified
portfolios through mutual fund investments.) By doing so, they can eliminate about
half of the riskiness inherent in individual stocks.

Mini Case: 4 - 11

h.

1. Should portfolio effects impact the way investors think about the riskiness of
individual stocks?

Answer: Portfolio diversification does affect investors views of risk. A stocks stand-alone
risk as measured by its or CV, may be important to an undiversified investor, but it
is not relevant to a well-diversified investor. A rational, risk-averse investor is more
interested in the impact that the stock has on the riskiness of his or her portfolio than
on the stocks stand-alone risk. Stand-alone risk is composed of diversifiable risk,
which can be eliminated by holding the stock in a well-diversified portfolio, and the
risk that remains is called market risk because it is present even when the entire
market portfolio is held.
h.

2. If you decided to hold a 1-stock portfolio, and consequently were exposed to

more risk than diversified investors, could you expect to be compensated for all
of your risk; that is, could you earn a risk premium on that part of your risk that
you could have eliminated by diversifying?

Answer: If you hold a one-stock portfolio, you will be exposed to a high degree of risk, but
you wont be compensated for it. If the return were high enough to compensate you
for your high risk, it would be a bargain for more rational, diversified investors. They
would start buying it, and these buy orders would drive the price up and the return
down. Thus, you simply could not find stocks in the market with returns high enough
to compensate you for the stocks diversifiable risk.
i.

How is market risk measured for individual securities? How are beta coefficients
calculated?

Answer: Market risk, which is relevant for stocks held in well-diversified portfolios, is defined
as the contribution of a security to the overall riskiness of the portfolio. It is
measured by a stocks beta coefficient, which measures the stocks volatility relative
to the market.
Run a regression with returns on the stock in question plotted on the y axis and
returns on the market portfolio plotted on the x axis.
The slope of the regression line, which measures relative volatility, is defined as
the stocks beta coefficient, or b.

Mini Case: 4 - 12

j.

Suppose you have the following historical returns for the stock market and for
another company, P.Q. Unlimited. Explain how to calculate beta, and use the
historical stock returns to calculate the beta for PQU. Interpret your results.
YEAR
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

MARKET
25.7%
8.0%
-11.0%
15.0%
32.5%
13.7%
40.0%
10.0%
-10.8%
-13.1%

PQU
40.0%
-15.0%
-15.0%
35.0%
10.0%
30.0%
42.0%
-10.0%
-25.0%
25.0%

Answer: Betas are calculated as the slope of the characteristic line, which is the regression
line showing the relationship between a given stock and the general stock market.

40%

PQU

20%
rM

0%
-40%

-20%

0%

20%

40%

-20%
-40%

r PQU = 0.83r M + 0.03

2

R = 0.36

Mini Case: 4 - 13

Show the graph with the regression results. Point out that the beta is the slope
coeeficient, which is 0.83. State that an average stock, by definition, moves with the
market. Beta coefficients measure the relative volatility of a given stock relative to
the stock market. The average stocks beta is 1.0. Most stocks have betas in the
range of 0.5 to 1.5. Theoretically, betas can be negative, but in the real world they are
generally positive.
In practice, 4 or 5 years of monthly data, with 60 observations, would generally
be used. Some analysts use 52 weeks of weekly data. Point out that the r 2 of 0.36 is
slightly higher than the typical value of about 0.29. A portfolio would have an r 2
greater than 0.9.
k.

The expected rates of return and the beta coefficients of the alternatives as
supplied by barney smiths computer program are as follows:
Security
Alta Inds
Market
Am. Foam
T-Bills
Repo Men

Return ( r )
17.4%
15.0
13.8
8.0
1.7

Risk (Beta)
1.29
1.00
0.68
0.00
(0.86)

(1) Do the expected returns appear to be related to each alternatives market risk?
(2) Is it possible to choose among the alternatives on the basis of the information
developed thus far?
Answer:

The expected returns are related to each alternatives market risk--that is, the higher
the alternatives rate of return the higher its beta. Also, note that t-bills have 0 risk.
We do not yet have enough information to choose among the various alternatives.
We need to know the required rates of return on these alternatives and compare them
with their expected returns.

Mini Case: 4 - 14

l.

1. Write out the security market line (SML) equation, use it to calculate the
required rate of return on each alternative, and then graph the relationship
between the expected and required rates of return.

Answer: Here is the SML equation:

ri = rrf + (rm - rrf)bi.
If we use the t-bill yield as a proxy for the risk-free rate, then r RF = 8%. Further,
our estimate of rm = r m is 15%. Thus, the required rates of return for the alternatives
are as follows:
Alta Inds: 8% + (15% - 8%)1.29 = 17.03% 17.0%.

l.

Market:

8% + (15% - 8%)1.00 = 15.0%.

Am Foam :

8% +(15% - 8%)0.68 = 12.76% 12.8%.

T-Bills:

8% + (15% - 8%)1.29 = 17.03% 17.0%.

Repo Men:

8% + (15% - 8%)-0.86 = 1.98% 2%.

2. How do the expected rates of return compare with the required rates of return?

Answer: We have the following relationships:

SECURITY

Expected
Return

(r )

Alta Inds
Market
Am Foam
T-Bills
Repo Men

17.4%
15.0
13.8
8.0
1.7

Required
Return
(r)
17.0%
15.0
12.8
8.0
2.0

CONDITION

Undervalued: r > R
Fairly Valued (Market Equilibrium)

Undervalued: r > R
Fairly Valued

Overvalued: R > r

Mini Case: 4 - 15

Req
uire
d
and
Exp
ecte
d
Rate
s of

SML: ri = rRF + RPM bi

= 8% + 7%(b
i)

25%
20%

Alta Inds.

15%
Retu
rn

Am. Foam

Market

10%
T-Bills

5%
0%

Repo Men

-5%
-10%
-3

-2

-1

Beta

(Note: the plot looks somewhat unusual in that the x axis extends to the left of zero.
We have a negative beta stock, hence a required return that is less than the risk-free
rate.) The t-bills and market portfolio plot on the SML, Alta Inds. And Am. Foam
plot above it, and Repo Men plots below it. Thus, the t-bills and the market portfolio
promise a fair return, Alta Inds and Am. Foam are good deals because they have
expected returns above their required returns, and Repo Men has an expected return
below its required return.
l.

3. Does the fact that Repo Men has an expected return which is less than the t-bill
rate make any sense?

Answer: Repo Men is an interesting stock. Its negative beta indicates negative market risk-including it in a portfolio of normal stocks will lower the portfolios risk.
Therefore, its required rate of return is below the risk-free rate. Basically, this means
that Repo Men is a valuable security to rational, well-diversified investors. To see
why, consider this question: would any rational investor ever make an investment
which has a negative expected return? The answer is yes--just think of the
purchase of a life or fire insurance policy. The fire insurance policy has a negative
expected return because of commissions and insurance company profits, but
businesses buy fire insurance because they pay off at a time when normal operations
are in bad shape. Life insurance is similar--it has a high return when work income
ceases. A negative beta stock is conceptually similar to an insurance policy.

Mini Case: 4 - 16

l.

4. What would be the market risk and the required return of a 50-50 portfolio of
Alta Inds and Repo Men? Of Alta Inds and Am. Foam?

Answer: Note that the beta of a portfolio is simply the weighted average of the betas of the
stocks in the portfolio. Thus, the beta of a portfolio with 50 percent Alta Inds and 50
percent Repo Men is:

bp =

w b

i i.

i =1

bp = 0.5(bAlta) + 0.5(bRepo) = 0.5(1.29) + 0.5(-0.86)

= 0.215,
rp = rRF + (rM - rRF)bp

= 8.0% + (15.0% - 8.0%)(0.215)

= 8.0% + 7%(0.215) = 9.51% 9.5%.
For a portfolio consisting of 50% Alta Inds plus 50% Am. Foam, the required return
would be 14.9%:
bp = 0.5(1.29) + 0.5(0.68) = 0.985.
rp = 8.0% + 7%(0.985) = 14.9%.
m.

1. Suppose investors raised their inflation expectations by 3 percentage points over

current estimates as reflected in the 8 percent t-bill rate. What effect would
higher inflation have on the SML and on the returns required on high- and lowrisk securities?

Mini Case: 4 - 17

Answer:
Required and Expected
Rates of Return (%)
40
35

Increased Risk Aversion

30
Increased Inflation

25
20
15

Original Situation

10
5
0.00

0.50

1.00

1.50

2.00

Beta

Here we have plotted the SML for betas ranging from 0 to 2.0. The base case SML is
based on r RF = 8% and r M = 15%. If inflation expectations increase by 3
percentage points, with no change in risk aversion, then the entire SML is shifted
upward (parallel to the base case SML) by 3 percentage points. Now, r RF = 11%,
r M = 18%, and all securities required returns rise by 3 percentage points. Note that
the market risk premium, r m - r RF , remains at 7 percentage points.
m.

2. Suppose instead that investors risk aversion increased enough to cause the
market risk premium to increase by 3 percentage points. (inflation remains
constant.) What effect would this have on the SML and on returns of high- and
low-risk securities?

Answer: When investors risk aversion increases, the SML is rotated upward about the yintercept ( r RF ). r RF remains at 8 percent, but now r M increases to 18 percent, so
the market risk premium increases to 10 percent. The required rate of return will rise
sharply on high-risk (high-beta) stocks, but not much on low-beta securities.

Mini Case: 4 - 18

Optional question (cover if time is available)

Financial managers are more concerned with investment decisions relating to real assets
such as plant and equipment than with investments in financial assets such as securities.
How does the analysis that we have gone through relate to real asset investment decisions,
especially corporate capital budgeting decisions?
Answer: There is a great deal of similarity between your financial asset decisions and a firms
capital budgeting decisions. Here is the linkage:
1. A company may be thought of as a portfolio of assets. If the company diversifies
its assets, and especially if it invests in some projects that tend to do well when
others are doing badly, it can lower the variability of its returns.
2. Companies obtain their investment funds from investors, who buy the firms
stocks and bonds. When investors buy these securities, they require a risk
premium which is based on the companys risk as they (investors) see it. Further,
since investors in general hold well-diversified portfolios of stocks and bonds, the
risk that is relevant to them is the securitys market risk, not its stand-alone risk.
Thus, investors view the risk of the firm from a market risk perspective.
3. Therefore, when a manager makes a decision to build a new plant, the riskiness of
the investment in the plant that is relevant to the firms investors (its owners) is its
market risk, not its stand-alone risk. Accordingly, managers need to know how
physical asset investment decisions affect their firms beta coefficient. A
particular asset may look quite risky when viewed in isolation, but if its returns
are negatively correlated with returns on most other stocks, the asset may really
have low risk. We will discuss all this in more detail in our capital budgeting
discussions.

Mini Case: 4 - 19