Risk refers to the fact that investors never know with certainty what future payments on an asset will be Risk and Portfolio Diversification: “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket” An individual investment’s overall risk divided into two components: diversifiable risk nondiversifiable risk (or “idiosyncratic risk”) 1 ©2013 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd.Chapter 14, LO3
Average expected rate of return: the probability weighted average of the investment’s possible future rates of return E.g., investment has a 75% probability of generating 11% and a 25% probability of generating 15%, Its average expected rate of return will be 12% = (.75 × 11%) + (.25 × 15%) 2 ©2013 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd.Chapter 14, LO3
Investors require a statistic that can measure each investment’s risk level Beta, which measures how the non-diversifiable risk of a given asset or portfolio of assets compares with that of the market portfolio Beta statistic standardized so that market portfolio’s level of non-diversifiable risk is set equal to 1.0 Asset with beta = 0.5 has non-diversifiable risk that is ½ of that possessed by the market portfolio Asset with beta = 2.0 has twice as much non- diversifiable risk as the market portfolio Beta can be calculated not only for individual assets but also for portfolios 3 ©2013 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd.Chapter 14, LO3
Risk and uncertainty cause investors to pay higher prices for less risky assets and lower prices for more risky assets Assets with higher levels of risk always end up with higher average expected rates of return 4 ©2013 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd.Chapter 14, LO3
Short-term Canadian government bonds considered to be risk free However, do not earn 0% rate due to time preference People typically prefer to consume things in the present rather than in the future Rate of return earned by short-term federal government bonds is often referred to as the risk-free interest rate (i f ). 5 ©2013 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd.Chapter 14, LO3
©2013 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd.Chapter 14, LO3 6 Source: The International Country Risk Guide, January Published by the PRS (Political Risk Survey) Group, Inc. Used with permission of the PRS Group, Inc.