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

question 82

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 matterσ

• 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:

Break-Even Point

The point at which total costs and total revenues are equal, meaning no net loss or gain is incurred by the business.

Market Price

The amount of money required to purchase something or the cost at which something can be bought or sold in a free market.

Economic Profit

The difference between total revenue and the sum of explicit and implicit costs.

Marginal Revenue

Marginal Revenue is the additional income received from selling one more unit of a good or service.