Module 10: Risk, Return, and Market Efficiency Flashcards
What are the 2 things to keep in mind when talking about risk?
- There’s a reward for bearing risk
- The greater the risk, the greater the potential reward (return)
T or F: You cannot earn a return on something that does not have risk.
False; you can, although if you want to earn a higher return, you have to take on risk.
What determines the required return on an investment?
We want to think about how much RISK is involved
What are the 2 ways for equity holders to get a return?
- Dividends (money paid from the company back to the shareholders)
- Capital Gains
What are the 2 ways Capital Gains are sometimes differentiated?
- Realized Capital Gains
- Unrealized Capital Gains
Match the following two descriptions to whether it describes Realized or Unrealized Capital Gains:
a. means that the price has gone up, but we haven’t collected it.
b. when we sell the stock, then we get that cash if we sold it for more than we bought it for
a. unrealized
b. realized (we have now realized those capital gains when we get that cash)
What is the downside to Unrealized Capital Gains?
What is the upside to Unrealized Capital Gains?
- Downside: as long as you still own the stock, yes the price has gone up so far but it can go back down (that risk component). So, until you realize those capital gains, they are paper gains. You could get them right now, but stocks will sometimes fall very quickly. So, the longer you wait, the bigger the chance something happens and those gains can evaporate and even turn into losses.
- Upside: you can access them at any time, assuming the stock doesn’t go back down, and until you realize them, you don’t pay taxes on them (the longer you can push out those taxes, the less it costs).
What is one of the big reasons why share buybacks are becoming more common than dividends?
Bc share buybacks, which pushes more of the returns of stocks to the capital gains side, which offers tax efficiency.
- What is the formula for calculating overall return for equity holders?
- What part of the formula is the “Capital Gains” portion?
- What part of the formula is the “Initial Investment” portion?
- Overall Return = ((Ending Price - Beginning Price) + Dividends) / Beginning Price
- Capital Gains Portion: (Ending Price - Beginning Price)
- Initial Investment Portion: Beginning Price (in the denominator)
What is the formula for calculating overall return for bondholders?
Overall Return = ((Ending Price - Beginning Price) + Coupon) / Beginning Price
What is the big difference between the Overall Return for Equity holders and Bondholders?
Ending Price for bondholders could be what we sell it for (if we sell the bond before it matures), or it could be the par value (if we hold it until maturity).
Whereas with stock, there isn’t an ending price, bc we can potentially hold it for forever.
When calculating Percentage Return, you divide the answer from Per Share Dollar Return or Total Dollar Return / (Initial/Ending) Cost.
Divide by INITIAL cost
(doesn’t matter if you use the answer from per share dollar return or total dollar return)
^ if you use total dollar return make sure to use initial cost in terms of total initial cost.
We cannot have a negative dividend, so they will always be ________ or _____, but the price can either go up from what we bought it at or it can go down, which is why we would typically get a (higher/lower) return on stocks in the long run because we are taking that risk, but if we have to sell before the long run, we’re going to take a _____.
positive; 0; higher; loss
the excess required from an investment in a risky asset over that required from a risk-free asset.
risk premium
(Long-term corporate bonds have a risk premium over long-term government bonds (bc the government won’t default since they can print money).
T or F: You can get a higher average return when you take on more risk, particularly over a long period of time.
True
Which is the riskiest type of asset, which therefore will earn you the highest return and risk premium?
a. large company stocks
b. small company stocks
c. long-term corporate bonds
d. long-term government bonds
e. U.S. Treasury Bills
b. small company stocks
If small company stocks average return was 16.3% and U.S. treasury bills return was the most risk-free asset, earning an average return of 3.4%, how would you calculate risk premium for small company stocks?
16.3 - 3.4 = 12.9%
Which is the most risk-free asset, therefore having the lowest risk premium and lowest average return?
a. large company stocks
b. small company stocks
c. long-term corporate bonds
d. U.S. Treasury Bills
e. long-term government bonds
d. U.S. Treasury Bills
Why is there additional risk with long-term government bonds compared to to U.S treasury bills even though they both have no default risk? (2 things)
- There is less liquidity and more interest rate risk with long-term government bonds
T or F: All risk is the same
False; there are different types of risk
What are the 2 types of risk?
Which type gets rewarded if the market is efficient and which risk does not get rewarded?
- Nondiversifiable risk (systematic risk) – gets rewarded
- Diversifiable risk (unsystematic risk) – doesn’t get rewarded
a risk that influences a large number of assets
nondiversifiable risk
Nondiversifiable risk is also referred to as _________ risk or ________ risk.
systematic; market
Which type of risk is this an example of:
things like wars, presidential elections, and big economic effects like recessions are events that will cause most assets to go up or down at the same time, and it doesn’t matter if you own 1,10,or 100 stocks– if it’s a bad day for the market, your portfolio is almost certainly going to do poorly (and vice versa) regardless of how many assets you own.
nondiversifiable (systematic/market) risk
a risk that affects at most a small number of assets.
diversifiable risk
Diversifiable risk is also referred to as ________ risk or ________ ________ risk.
unsystematic; asset-specific