A Study Examining the Performance of Numerous Assets from the United

question 27

Multiple Choice

A study examining the performance of numerous assets from the United States and around the world confirms that

• A) riskier assets with higher standard deviations experienced lower returns.
• B) riskier assets with lower standard deviations experienced higher returns.
• C) standard deviation did a better job of explaining the returns than beta.
• D) U.S. equities have zero correlation with world government bonds and with the commodities index.
• E) most assets (including common stocks) have positive correlations with inflation.

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Definitions:

Standard Deviation

A statistical measure of the dispersion or variability of a set of data points around their mean, commonly used in finance to assess the risk or volatility of an investment.

Risky Asset

An asset that has a significant degree of risk associated with it, offering the potential for higher returns in exchange for the increased risk.

Standard Deviation

A statistic that measures the dispersion of a dataset relative to its mean and is used in finance to gauge the amount of historical volatility of an investment.

Risk-Free Asset

An investment that is expected to return its principal and interest with near certainty, such as government bonds from stable countries.