Capital Asset Pricing Model

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Capital Asset Pricing Model One of the most important things to remember in finances, is that return is a function of risk. Which basically means that the more risk you take the higher your potential return should be to offset your increase chance of loss. One of the many tools used by finance professionals to calculate the return an investment should bring is the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM). CAPM was introduced by Harry Markowitz, Jack Treynor, John Lintner, Jan Mossin, and William Sharpe. Harry Markowitz worked on diversification and modern portfolio theory. Jack Treynor, John Lintner, Jan Mossin, and William Sharpe all contributed to the theory of CAPM. CAPM does depend on certain assumptions. There were originally nine assumptions, though some are no longer valid in today’s world. These assumptions were: investors are wealth maximizers who select investments based on expected return and standard deviation; investors can borrow or lend unlimited amounts at a risk-free rate; there are no restrictions on short sales of any financial asset; all investors have the same expectations related to the market; all financial assets are fully divisible and can be sold at any time at the market price; there are no transaction costs; there are no taxes; no investor’s activities can influence market prices; and the quantities of all financial assets are given and fixed. Before one can use the CAPM formula, you need to understand its risk measurement factor, also known as the beta coefficient. The securities market as a whole has a beta coefficient of 1.0. A beta coefficient above the 1.0 implies a higher risk that the market average, whereas, a beta coefficient below 1.0 implies less risk that the market average. The CAPM formula can sometimes be referred to as the Security Market Line formula. The equation

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