In: Finance
Here are the returns on two stocks.
| Digital Cheese | Executive Fruit | |||||||
| January | +15 | +8 | ||||||
| February | −2 | +1 | ||||||
| March | +4 | +6 | ||||||
| April | +6 | +16 | ||||||
| May | −3 | +2 | ||||||
| June | +2 | +6 | ||||||
| July | −1 | −2 | ||||||
| August | −7 | −1 | ||||||
Required:
a-1. Calculate the variance and standard deviation of each stock.
a-2. Which stock is riskier if held on its own?
b. Now calculate the returns in each month of a portfolio that invests an equal amount each month in the two stocks.
c. Is the variance more or less than halfway between the variance of the two individual stocks?