CHAPTER 11

        1.     A market risk factor is a risk that influences only a small number of assets.

        A)    True

        B)    False

 

        2.     In the first chapter, it was stated that financial managers should act to maximize shareholder wealth. Why are the efficient markets hypothesis (EMH), the CAPM, and the SML so important in the accomplishment of this objective?

 

        3.        What is the variance?

                State        Probability      E(Ri)

                Boom        .15   .6

                Good        .50   .2

                Recession        .25   -.1

                Depression      .10   -.3

        A)        .0523

        B)        .0673

        C)        .0835

        D)        .1324

        E)        .4156

 

        4.        What is the expected portfolio return given the following information:

                        Asset        Port. Weight      E(Ri)

                        A     .25        15%

                        B      .25        20%

                        C     .30        10%

                        D     .20        35%

        A)        7.71%

        B)        9.23%

        C)        18.75%

        D)        19.25%

        E)        21.15%

 

        5.        What is the expected return on asset A if it has a beta of .3, the expected market return is 14%, and the risk-free rate is 5%?

        A)        6.0%

        B)        7.2%

        C)        7.7%

        D)        8.3%

        E)        9.2%

 

        6.        Which of the following would increase a portfolio's systematic risk?

                I. Common stock is sold and replaced with Treasury bills

                II. Stocks with a beta equal to the market are added to a portfolio of Treasury bills

                III. Low-beta stocks are sold and replaced with high-beta stocks

        A)    I only

        B)    II only

        C)    III only

        D)    I and II only

        E)     II and III only

 

        7.        Which of the following does NOT describe the risk that remains in a well-diversified portfolio?

        A)        Market risk

        B)        Asset specific risk

        C)        Non-diversifiable risk

        D)        Systematic risk

 

        8.     Your firm's common stock has a beta of 1.50. Which of the following is/are implied by this?

                I. Your firm's common stock has a 50 percent higher expected return than the average stock

                II. Given a market risk premium of 10 percent, the expected return on your firm's stock would be 15 percent

                III. Your firm's common stock has 50 percent more systematic risk than the average stock

        A)    I only

        B)    II only

        C)    III only

        D)    I and III only

        E)     I, II, and III

 

        9.     You hold three stocks in your portfolio: stock A, stock B, and stock C. The portfolio beta is 1.50. Stock A constitutes 20 percent of the dollar value of your holdings and has a beta of 1.0. If you sell all of your investment in A and invest the proceeds in the risk free asset, your new portfolio beta will be

        A)        0.850

        B)        1.200

        C)        1.300

        D)        1.550

        E)        1.625

 

        10.        Consider a day on which the Dow Jones Industrial Average, an average of 30 large stocks, rose 59 points. On that same day, IBM, which is one of the 30 stocks in the DJIA, announced some unexpectedly bad news. The price of IBM declined $10 on that same day. Using this example, discuss systematic risk, portfolio diversification, and asset-specific risk.

 

Use the following to answer question 11:

 

                Return on        Return on

State        Probability      Security A        Security B

Boom       .6        15% 8%

Bust .4     5%        20%

 

        11.        What is the expected return on a portfolio that equally split among A, B, and the risk free asset? The expected return on the risk free asset is 4%.

        A)        8.9%

        B)        9.3%

        C)        10.1%

        D)        11.8%

        E)        13.8%

 

        12.        Which of the following statements is/are true about the variance of the possible future returns on a financial asset where you have multiple possible states of the economy along with associated probabilities of the states occurring?

                I. The variance is a simple average of the squared deviations of the actual returns from the expected returns

                II. The greater the dispersion in the possible returns on the firm's stock, the lower the variance of the possible returns, all else equal

                III. The variance of the possible returns on a risk-free asset is zero

        A)    I only

        B)    II only

        C)    III only

        D)    II and III only

        E)     I, II, and III

 

        13.        Brady Lady Cosmetics just announced that earnings for the first quarter of the current year grew at an annualized rate of 3 percent, well above the rate for the same quarter the previous year. Upon the announcement, the stock price did not change. (The market in general was unchanged also.) Which of the following is most likely correct?

        A)    The price of Brady did not change since the market was surprised by the announcement and didn't know how to react

        B)    The lack of price change for Brady is unusual considering the market in general didn't change

        C)    The lack in price change for Brady is likely because investors anticipated the news that was released

        D)    The price of Brady will not change regardless of the announcement made if the market doesn't change

        E)        Brady must have a beta of one

 

        14.        Systematic risk is considered important because ______________.

        A)    it is needed in order to measure the total risk of an asset

        B)    the risk premium depends only on this type of risk

        C)    the market does not provide a reward for this type of risk

        D)    the risk premium depends on both systematic and unsystematic risk

        E)        investors are willing to pay more for stocks with high systematic risk components

 

Use the following to answer questions 15-16:

 

        Return on        Return on

State        Probability      Security A        Security B

Boom       .3        12% -2%

Normal     .6        8%   2%

Bust .1     4%        6%

 

        15.        What is the standard deviation of the return on Security A?

        A)        1.3%

        B)        1.9%

        C)        2.5%

        D)        2.4%

        E)        6.4%

 

        16.        What is the expected return on Security A?

        A)        1.2%

        B)        4.0%

        C)        8.0%

        D)        8.8%

        E)        9.3%

 

        17.   You believe that the possible returns on stock A will be either 25 percent or -15 percent over the coming year, depending on whether the economy does well or does poorly. Given some probabilities of the future state of the economy, you compute the standard deviation of the possible returns. To get the dispersion of the possible outcomes in the same units as the outcomes themselves (i.e., in percent), you must then compute the variance.

        A)    True

        B)    False

 

        18.   A unique risk is a risk that affects a relatively large number of the assets in the market.

        A)    True

        B)    False

 

        19.        Asset A, which has an expected return of 12% and a beta of .8, plots on the security market line. Which of the following is NOT correct about Asset B, another risky asset with a beta of 1.4?

        A)    If the market is in equilibrium, Asset B also plots on the security market line

        B)    If Asset B plots on the security market line, then Asset B and Asset A have the same reward to risk ratio

        C)        Asset B has more systematic risk than both Asset A and the market portfolio

        D)    If Asset B plots on the security market line and has an expected return of 18%, then the risk free rate must be 4%

        E)     If Asset B plots on the security market line and has an expected return of 18%, the expected return on the market must be 15%

 

        20.   We routinely assume that investors are risk-averse return-seekers; i.e., they like returns and dislike risk. If so, why do we contend that only systematic risk is important? (Alternatively, why is total risk not important to investors, in and of itself?)

 

Answer Key

 

        1.     B     

        2.     This is a truly integrative question that will separate those who are giving the material quite a bit of thought from those who are cracking the book for the first time the night before the exam. In simple terms, one could say that maximizing shareholder wealth by maximizing P0 (Chapter 1) is a reasonable objective if and only if we have some assurance that observed prices are meaningful - i.e., that they reflect the value of the firm. This is a major implication of the EMH. Further, if we are to be able to assess the wealth effects of future decisions on security and firm values, we must have a valuation model whose parameters can be shown to be affected by those decisions (Chapters 6 & 7). Finally, any valuation model we employ will require us to quantify return and risk (Chapters 10 and 11).

        3.     B     

        4.     C    

        5.     C    

        6.     E     

        7.     B     

        8.     C    

        9.     C    

        10.        Asset-specific risk is obviously the negative announcement coming from IBM, resulting in a decline in the stock's price. The principle of systematic risk is evident in that the market in general was advancing. Finally, the deeper part of this question is that students should recognize that any investor who held IBM alone on this particular day lost money. However, anyone who owned IBM in a well diversified portfolio, such as the DJIA, made money in spite of IBM's decline within the portfolio. This clearly demonstrates the value of portfolio diversification.

        11.   B     

        12.   C    

        13.   C    

        14.   B     

        15.   D    

        16.   D    

        17.   B     

        18.   B     

        19.   E     

        20.   This question, of course, gets to the point of the chapter - that rational investors will diversify away as much risk as possible. From the discussion in the text, most students will also have picked up that it is quite easy to eliminate diversifiable risk in practice - either by holding small (15-20 stock) portfolios, or by holding one share in a diversified mutual fund. And, as noted in the text, there will be no return for bearing diversifiable risk, thus, total risk is not particularly important to a diversified investor.