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CAPM Security Market Line and Portfolio Returns as a Function of Beta

Article Quant Q&A · Author: Mr.Price

Summary

The document considers a two-stock market and asks how expected return relates to beta for portfolios made from the stocks, and for efficient portfolios that combine risky assets with a risk-free asset. The answer distinguishes the Security Market Line (SML), which relates expected return to market beta, from the Capital Market Line (CML), which describes the risk-return combinations available by mixing the market portfolio with risk-free borrowing or lending.

The market portfolio is assumed to be equally weighted because the two companies have equal capitalization. The SML uses beta, calculated from an asset’s covariance with the market divided by market variance, and has a slope equal to the market risk premium. The CML is tangent to the efficient frontier under the stated equilibrium assumptions. The answer emphasizes assumptions such as mean-variance optimization, no taxes or transaction costs, short selling, and borrowing or lending at the risk-free rate. Since the question disallows borrowing at that rate, the standard CML description needs qualification; the response does not fully resolve that constraint or derive the requested plotted coordinates.

Key ideas

  • The SML relates expected return to an asset’s beta against the market portfolio.
  • Beta is covariance with the market divided by market variance.
  • The SML slope is the market portfolio’s expected excess return over the risk-free rate.
  • The CML describes portfolios formed from the market portfolio and a risk-free asset.
  • Standard CAPM frontier results rely on assumptions including short selling and borrowing or lending at the risk-free rate.

Tags

Full text
# relationship between the expected rate of return and the value measured by the beta factor


# relationship between the expected rate of return and the value measured by the beta factor












Assume that only two companies are listed on an effective capital market: companies A and company B. Capitalization (market value of all shares) of both companies is the same. Expected rate of return from shares of company A is 19%, and the expected rate of return on company shares B is 14%. Standard deviation of the rate of return on shares of company A is 30%, and the standard deviation of the rate of return on the company's shares B is 20%. Correlation coefficient between the rate of return on shares company A and the rate of return on shares of company B is 0.5. Rate of return of risk-free assets is 3%, with investors being able to grant loans at this rate, but it is not possible to borrow loans at a rate of return on risk-free assets. However, it is permissible to take both long and short positions in actions (short sale). I have to:

a) Calculate the equation of the straight line showing the relationship between the expected rate of return and the risk measured by the beta coefficient, on which lie only portfolios composed of shares A and B

b) Calculate the equation of the straight line showing the relationship between the expected rate of return and the risk measured by the beta coefficient, on which, under market equilibrium, there lie an segment containing effective portfolios composed partly of shares and partly of risk free assets.

I compute: $\mu_m=\frac{33}{200}$ (expected return from market porfolio), so i guess that in point b) the line will be: $$\mu_w=R+(\mu_m-R)\beta=\frac{3}{100}+\frac{27}{100}\beta$$ But what answer will be in point a)? I have also point c) to answer but first I need to know what is the line in point a). Can anyone help?

c) Present solutions to tasks in point (a) and (b) in the overview sketch in coordinate system: expected rate of return (axis ordinates), beta factor (abscissa axis). Enter coordinates points that you consider important and justify the solution selection of these points.

## Answer by BCCapital (score 1, accepted)

https://quant.stackexchange.com/a/53876

It's worth reiterating the assumptions underlying CAPM. The first set assumes individuals are rational, mean-variance optimizers, etc. The second set is a bit more interesting. The model assumes no taxes, no transaction costs, and that investors can borrow or lend at the risk-free rate and take short positions. You can't build an efficient frontier without leverage portfolios.

1) I think what your looking for is the Security Market Line, which plots the expected rate of return as a function of market-risk (Beta). The SML can be found by

$ \beta = cov(r_{i},r_{m})/\sigma_{m}^2$

You would need to be able to compute the variance between each security $i$ and the market index, which in your case is evenly cap-weighted

2) The slope is just the market risk premium (with $i$ representing the individual stock and $m$ representing the hypothetical 2-stock market).

$ SML = r_{f} + \beta[E(r_{m})-r_{f}] $

3) To answer question B, you'll need to look at the Capital Market Line (CML). Since investors have different risk preferences you'll see the creation of a market for loanable funds targeted to low risk-return individuals. CAPM is often described as the borrowing-and-lending line that runs tangent to the efficiency frontier we found earlier. In equilibrium, all investors will end up somewhere along the CML with a portfolio yielding an expected return and risk by investing in the market portfolio (defined as the best efficient portfolio) and by going long or short in a risk-free security.

Shown in full with attribution under the source's licence. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0 (Stack Exchange)

This summary was written by Stratmill's research agent from the original; it is not a copy of the source.