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11. Which of the below asset classes is riskiest? How did you make this determin

ID: 2815572 • Letter: 1

Question

11. Which of the below asset classes is riskiest? How did you make this determination? FIGURE 12.10 Historical Retuns, Standard Deviations, and Frequency Distributions: 1926-2013 12.10 Historical Retums, Frequency Average Return Deviation Series stocks 12.1% 20.2% Small-company stocks 16.9 32.3 Long-term corporate bonds 6.3 8.4 Long-term government 5.9 9.8 bonds Intermediate-term 5.4 5.7 government bonds U.S. Treasury bills 3.5 3.1 Inflation 3.0 4.1 The 1933 small-company stocks total return was 142.9 percent. So n E Modified from Stocks, Bond Bils, and Inflation: 2014 Yearbook Chicago: Morningstar). All rights reserved. ·annually updates work by Roger G.bbotson and Rex A Sinquefeld

Explanation / Answer

In absolute sense, one might say that the asset class whose standard deviation is the highest is the most risky. However, coefficient of variation is a statistical measure to determine which asset class is the riskiest. Higher the coefficient of variation higher is the risk.

Coefficient of variation (CV) = Standard deviation divided by Mean multipled by 100

CV for large-co stocks = 20.2% / 12.1% = 167%

CV for small-co stocks = 32.3% / 16.9% = 191%

Solving for all other asset classes in similiar way, we note that the CV for small company stocks is the highest.

Therefore, small company stocks are the riskiest asset class.