In: Finance
A stock had returns of 19.02 percent, 22.72 percent, −16.16 percent, 9.44 percent, and 28.51 percent for the past five years. What is the standard deviation of the returns?
R1=19.02%, R2=22.72%, R3= -16.16%, R4=9.44%, R5=28.51%
To find the standard deviation of returns, first we need to find the Average return over 5 year period
Average return over 5 year period = RA = (sum of returns of 5 years) / No of years = (R1 + R2 + R3 + R4 + R5) / 5
RA = [19.02% + 22.72% + (-16.16%) + 9.44% + 28.51%] / 5 = [19.02% + 22.72% -16.16% + 9.44% + 28.51%] / 5 = 63.53% / 5 = 12.706%
Let Ri = Return of ith year , n = number of years = 5, then
Variance of returns = 0.12338256 / 5 = 0.024676512
Now,
Standard deviation of returns = 0.1570875 = 15.70875% = 15.71% (rounded to two decimal places)
Hence Standard deviation returns = 15.71%