Questions On Arbitrage Pricing Theory

Fama and French’s three factor model attempts to explain the variation of stock prices through a multifactor model that includes a size factor and BE/ME factor in addition to the beta risk factor. Fama-French model essentially extended the CAPM (which breaks up cause of variation of stock price into systematic risk which is non-diversifiable and idiosyncratic risk which is diversifiable) by introducing these two additional factors. Fama and French find that stocks with high beta didn’t have consistently higher returns than stocks with low beta and this indicates that beta was not a useful measure under their model. Their model is based on research findings that sensitivity of movements of the size and BE/ME factor constituted risk, and

It is believed that Efficient Market Theory is based upon some fallacies and it does not provide strong grounds of whatever that it proposes. More importantly the Efficient Market theory is perceived to be too subjective in its definition and details and because of this it is close to impossible to accommodate this theory into a meaningful and explicit financial model that can actually assist investors in making the investment decisions (Andresso-O’Callaghan, B., 2007).

The extracted data used includes monthly returns from January 1972 to July 2011. The assets are selected so that the portfolio contains the largest, most liquid, and most tradable assets. The choice of such a variety of assets across several markets was used in order to generate a large cross sectional dispersion in average return. It helped to reveal new factor exposure and define a general framework of the correlated value and momentum effects in various asset classes.

“The Benefits of diversification are clear. Portfolio theory has played a crucial role in explaining the relationship between risk and return where more than one investment is held. It also enables us to identify optimal and efficient portfolios.”

Week 1 – Introduction – Financial Accounting (Review) Week 2 – Financial Markets and Net Present Value Week 3 – Present Value Concepts Week 4 – Bond Valuation and Term Structure Theory Week 5 – Valuation of Stocks Week 6 – Risk and Return – Problem Set #1 Due Week 7* – Midterm (Tuesday*) Week 8 - Portfolio Theory Week 9 – Capital Asset Pricing Model Week 10 – Arbitrage Pricing Theory Week 11 – Operation and Efficiency of Capital Markets Week 12 – Course Review – Problem Set #2 Due

Another issue might arise by the determination of explanatory variables. As we follow the facesheet from Morningstar (2011) to choose our explanatory variables as a symbol of the defensive sectors and cyclical sectors, it is possible that the category of sectors is incorrect. Without the support of academic journals, the facesheet might be purely based on analysts ‘opinions instead of facts. By estimating wrong explanatory variables, the findings will become

In this literate review the most important papers about explaining stock returns from 1952, when Markowitz came up with Modern Portfolio Theory, till around 2011 will be discussed. As stated in Chapter 2, Jack Treynor was one of the first economists that started to work on the CAPM model. When he developed the CAPM in 1961, there was no way yet to fully test it. Because there were no samples large enough or of sufficient quality, the real testing of the CAPM started in 1970. In 1973, the world was shown the famous Black and Scholes options pricing model. One of the first studies that gave a different answer than the CAPM was the research by Basu (1977). While he agrees with the Efficient Market Hypothesis, Basu reaches another

The learning objectives for students in this course are: (l) improve your understanding of financial securities and markets, (2) develop the ability to analyze investment companies, common stocks, and bonds for investment decisions, (3) understand how options are

This essay will highlight the use of Capital asset pricing model ( CAPM ) to be considered as a pricing theory model for assets . CAPM model helps investors to analyse the risk and what expectation to keep from an investment (Banz , 1981) . There are two types of risk

The success of the model is attributed to Yale’s ability to combine both quantitative analysis (mean-variance analysis) with market judgments to structure its portfolio. In addition, Yale also uses statistical analysis to actively test their models with factors affecting the market, therefore understanding the sensitivity of their portfolio in response to various market changes. Yale also follows and forecasts the cash flow of private equity and real assets in its portfolio to decide the need for hedging.

We have used the data from Jan.2007-Dec.2011 (60 data points) to re-estimate βi’s which were averaged across securities within portfolios in order to obtain 10 initial portfolio βpt using the following regression

Franco Modigliani and Merton Miller examined how a corporation should select securities to sell in order to attain an optimal mix between debt and equity, the mirror image of what Markowitz and Tobin had studied. Their findings led them to the conclusion that the market value of a firm is independent of its capital structure. In an efficient market, the market will place the same value on firms with equal earnings power and equal risk. Their most innovative contribution to the theory of finance was in elevating arbitrage to the level of a driving force. This Law of One Price states, “two assets with identical attributes should sell for the same price… a profitable opportunity will arise to sell the asset where it is overpriced and to buy it back when it is underpriced. The arbitrager will then lock in a sure profit, otherwise known as a free lunch.” (171) In effect, arbitragers actually fix the imperfections in the market by bidding away the

As indicated by the case study S&P 500 index was use as a measure of the total return for the stock market. Our standard deviation of the total return was used as a one measure of the risk of an individual stock. Also betas for individual stocks are determined by simple linear regression. The variables were: total return for the stock as the dependent variable and independent variable is the total return for the stock. Since the descriptive statistics were a lot, only the necessary data was selected (below table.)

The analysis of this paper will derive the validity of the Fama and French (FF) model and the efficiency of the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM). The comparison of the Fama and French Model and CAPM (Sharpe, 1964 & Lintner, 1965) uses real time data of stock market to practise its efficacy. The implication of the function in realistic conditions would justify the utility of the CAPM theory. The theory suggests that the expected return demanded by investors on a risky asset depends on the risk-free rate of interest, the expected return on the market portfolio, the variance of the return on the market portfolio, and

Ever since Ross (1976) proposed the Arbitrage Pricing Theory (APT) as an alternative to the capital pricing model, many economists and investors have applied APT across different markets. Whereas the traditional capital pricing model explained asset returns with one beta, sensitivity to the market return, APT decomposes the return with a multiple number of factors. This idea became particularly popular for investors who aim to gain systematic risk other than market risk. However, the model specification aspect has been challenging to many practitioners as the theory does not require any specific sets of variables to be used (Azeez 2006).