Risk and Return

(1)Financial assets are expected to generate cash flows and hence the riskiness of a financial asset is measured in terms of the riskiness of its cash flows. (2)The riskiness of an asset may be measured on a stand-alone basis or in a portfolio context. An asset may be very risky if held by itself but may be much less risky when it is a part of a large portfolio. (3)In the context of a portfolio, the risk of an asset is divided into two parts: diversifiable risk (unsystematic risk) and market risk (systematic risk). Diversifiable risk arises from company-specific factors and hence can be washed away through diversification. Market risk stems from general market movements and hence cannot be diversified away. For a diversified investor what matters is the market risk and not the diversifiable risk. (4)In general, investors are risk-averse. So, they want to be compensated for bearing market risk. In a well-ordered market there is a linear relationship between market risk and expected return. (1) RISK AND RETURN OF A SINGLE ASSET: Capital gains/ loss yield Current Yield Rate of Return=[Annual income/Beginning price]+[{Ending price-Beginning price}/ Beginning price] OR Total return = Dividend + Capital gain=

Rate of return  Dividend yield  Capital gain yield R1  DIV1   P1  P  DIV1 P  P 0 0  1  P P P 0 0 0

(2) PROBABILITY DISTRIBUTION AND EXPECTED RATE OF RETURN: E(R)=∑(i=1 to n)=p(i) *R(i), where, E(R)=expected return, n=number of possible outcomes, p(i)=probability associated with R(i), R(i)=return for the ith possible outcome. (3)Standard Deviation of Return: Risk refers to the dispersion of a variable. It is commonly measured by the variance or the standard deviation. The variance of a probability distribution is the sum of the squares of the deviations of actual returns from the expected return, weighted by the associated probabilities.  2 = ∑ p(i)*{*R(i)-E(R)]} 2 where,  2 =variance, R®=return for the ith possible outcome, p(i)=probability