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PORTFOLIO THEORY
Outline
Efficient Frontier
Optimal Portfolio Riskless Lending and Borrowing The Single Index Model
Some investments can be very successful. 10,000 invested in September 2001 in Lastminute.com would have been worth 134,143 in August 2003 $10,000 invested in August 1998 in Cephalon would have been worth $107,096 in September 2003 (and $180,000 in 2007)
And Losses
Losses in value can be even more spectacular $10,000 invested in September 2000 in Palm Inc. would have been reduced to $91 by April 2003 A holding in July 2000 of 15 million in Exeter Equity Growth Fund would have been worth 72,463 in August 2003 (the share price fell from 103.50 to 0.50)
Probability Distribution of Returns State of the Economy 1 2 3 4 5 Probability Return on Stock A 15% -5% 5 35 25 Return on Stock B -5% 15 25 5 35 Return on Portfolio 5% 5% 15% 20% 30%
A Stock B : 2B
B Portfolio : 2(A+B)
= =
A+B
= =
= 16.3%
Unique Risk
Market Risk
10
20
No. of Securities
Portfolio Risk
The risk of a portfolio is measured by the variance (or standard deviation) of its return. Although the expected return on a portfolio
Covariance
COV (Ri , Rj) = p1 [Ri1 E(Ri)] [ Rj1 E(Rj)] + p2 [Ri2 E(Rj)] [Rj2 E(Rj)] +
Illustration
The returns on assets 1 and 2 under five possible states of nature are given below State of nature Probability Return on asset 1 Return on asset 2 1 0.10 -10% 5% 2 0.30 15 12 3 0.30 18 19 4 0.20 22 15 5 0.10 27 12 The expected return on asset 1 is : E(R1) = 0.10 (-10%) + 0.30 (15%) + 0.30 (18%) + 0.20 (22%) + 0.10 (27%) = 16% The expected return on asset 2 is : E(R2) = 0.10 (5%) + 0.30 (12%) + 0.30 (19%) + 0.20 (15%) + 0.10 (12%) = 14% The covariance between the returns on assets 1 and 2 is calculated below :
State of nature
Probability
Return on asset 1
(1)
(2)
(3)
Return on asset 2
(5)
1 2 3 4 5
Thus the covariance between the returns on the two assets is 26.0.
Coefficient Of Correlation
Cor (Ri , Rj) or ij =
ij
ij
i j
ij = ij . i . j
where
Dominance Of Covariance
As the number of securities included in a portfolio increases, the
1
1 2 3 : n
w1212 w2w12121
2
w2222
3
W2w32323
3
w1w21212 W1w31313
w3w13131 w3w23232
W3232
n
w1wn1n1n w2wn2n2n
:
wnw1n1n1
:
wn2n2
Var(Rp) = w12 Var(Ri) + wi wj Cov (Ri, Rj) i=1 i=1 j=1 i j If a nave diversification strategy is followed wi = 1/n. Under such a strategy n n n Var (Rp) =1/n 1/n Var (Ri) + 1/n2 Cov (Ri, Rj) i=1 i=1 j=1 ji The average variance term and the average covariance term may be expressed as follows: n Var = 1/n Var (Ri) i=1 1 n n Cov = Cov (Ri, Rj) n(n-1) i=1 j=1 ij Hence 1 n-1 Var (Rp) = Var + Cov n n As n increases, the first term tends to become zero and the second term looms large. Put differently, the importance of the variance term diminishes whereas the importance of the covariance term increases.
12% 20%
Standard deviation
20.00%
2 3
4 5 6 (B)
0.90 0.759
0.50 0.25 0.00
0.10 0.241
0.50 0.75 1.00
12.80% 13.93%
16.00% 18.00% 20.00%
17.64% 16.27%
20.49% 29.41% 40.00%
20% 3 2 1 (A)
6 (B)
12%
20%
B (WB = 1)
12%
A (WA = 1)
Standard deviation, p
2s - bS bS
2b+ 2s - 2bS bS
To illustrate the above formula, let us consider the following data: E(rB) = 8%, E(rs) = 15%, B = 0%, S = 20%. Given the above data the expected return and standard deviation of a portfolio consisting of bonds and stocks is: E(rp) = p = wb . 8 [ w2b . 100 + + ws . 15 w2s . 400 + 2wb.ws.pbs . 200 ]1/2
where E(rp) is the expected portfolio return, p is the portfolio standard deviation, wb and ws are the proportions invested in bonds and stocks, BS is the coefficient of correlation between the returns on bonds and stocks.
Minimum Variance Portfolio wb (min) E (rp) p 0.6667 10.33% 0 0.8000 9.400 12.00% 1.000 8.000 10.00%
D Z
N
X M
Standard deviation, p
Graphical Analysis
Calculus Analysis
A Standard deviation,
The standard deviation of the portfolio return is: P= [wa2 a2 + wb2 b2 + 2 wa wbab a b ]
Note that while the expected portfolio return is not affected by Pab, the coefficient of correlation between the returns on A and B, the standard deviation of portfolio return is affected by Pab.
Standard deviation p,
return, E(Rp)
Ip4 Ip3
Ip2
Ip1
S B R A
Standard deviation p,
Optimal Portfolio
Expected return , E (Rp)
IQ3
IQ2
I P3 I I P2 P 1 IQ1
X
* P
Q* M
A O
Standard deviation, p
Borrowing Opportunity
V E S B D F Y C O
A II G
X
I
u
Rf
Standard deviation, p
Thus, with the opportunity of lending and borrowing, the efficient frontier changes. It is no longer AFX. Rather, it becomes Rf SG as it domniates AFX.
Separation Theorem
Since Rf SG dominates AFX, every investor would do well to choose some combination of Rf and S. A conservative investor may choose a point like U, whereas an aggressive investor may choose a point like V. Thus, the task of portfolio selection can be separated into two steps: 1. Identification of S, the optimal portfolio of risky securities. 2. Choice of a combination of Rf and S, depending on ones risk attitude. This is the import of the celebrated separation theorem
Summing up
Portfolio theory, originally proposed by Markowitz, is the first formal attempt to quantify the risk of a portfolio and develop a methodology for determining the optimal portfolio.
The expected return on a portfolio of n securities is : E(Rp) = wi E(Ri)
The variance and standard deviation of the return on an n-security portfolio are: p2 = wi wj ij i j p = wi wj ij i j
A portfolio is inefficient if (and only if) there is an alternative with (i) the same E(Rp) and a lower p or (ii) the same p and a higher E(Rp), or (iii) a higher E(Rp) and a lower p