In: Finance
(Computing the standard deviation for a portfolio of two risky investments) Mary Guilott recently graduated from Nichols State University and is anxious to begin investing her meager savings as a way of applying what she has learned in business school. Specifically, she is evaluating an investment in a portfolio comprised of two firms' common stock. She has collected the following information about the common stock of Firm A and Firm B:
Expected Return Standard Deviation
Firm A's Common Stock 0.17 0.17
Firm B's Common Stock 0.19 0.24
Correlation Coefficient 0.40
.
a. If Mary invests half her money in each of the two common stocks, what is the portfolio's expected rate of return and standard deviation in portfolio return?
b. Answer part a where the correlation between the two common stock investments is equal to zero.
c. Answer part a where the correlation between the two common stock investments is equal to
plus+1.
d. Answer part a where the correlation between the two common stock investments is equal to
minus−1.
e. Using your responses to questions
along dash—d,
describe the relationship between the correlation and the risk and return of the portfolio.