Your Friend Is Considering Adding One Additional Stock to a 3-Stock

question 141

Multiple Choice

Your friend is considering adding one additional stock to a 3-stock portfolio, to form a 4-stock portfolio.She is highly risk averse and has asked for your advice.The three stocks currently held all have b = 1.0, and they are perfectly positively correlated with the market.Potential new Stocks A and B both have expected returns of 15%, are in equilibrium, and are equally correlated with the market, with r = 0.75.However, Stock A's standard deviation of returns is 12% versus 8% for Stock B.Which stock should this investor add to his or her portfolio, or does the choice not matter?

• A) Stock A.
• B) Stock B.
• C) Neither A nor B, as neither has a return sufficient to compensate for risk.
• D) Add A, since its beta must be lower.
• E) Either A or B, i.e., the investor should be indifferent between the two.

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Definitions:

Marginal Cost

The spending necessary to fabricate one more unit of a good or service.

Herfindahl-Hirschman Index

An index measuring the level of concentration in a market, calculated by summing the squares of the market shares of all competitors.

Antitrust Division

A government department responsible for enforcing laws that promote competition and prevent monopolies and anti-competitive practices.

Industry Concentration

The extent to which a small number of firms dominate the total sales, production, or capacity of an industry.