8. Relationship between risk and return The relationship between risk and return is a fundamental financial relationship that affects expected rates of return on every existing asset investment. The Risk-Return relationship is characterized as being a "positive" or "direct" relationship meaning that if there are expectations of higher levels of risk associated with a particular investment then greater returns are required as compensation for that higher expected risk. Alternatively, if an investment has relatively lower levels of expected risk then investors are satisfied with relatively lower returns.
This risk-return relationship holds for individual investors and business managers. Greater degrees of risk must be compensated for with greater returns on investment. Since investment returns reflects the degree of risk involved with the investment, investors need to be able to determine how much of a return is appropriate for a given level of risk. This process is referred to as "pricing the risk". In order to price the risk, we must first be able to measure the risk