1.Brad Secrest, CFA has worked for World Funds Incorporated for many years. World Funds offers a variety of publicly traded mutual funds. The funds range from conservative fixed-income funds to high-risk funds that invest in small growth stocks and international stocks. The flagship fund of World Funds is the All Stock Fund, which Secrest manages. The stated goal of the fund is to use a wide variety of stocks to create a very diversified portfolio. In managing the fund, Secrest uses the level of the S& 500’s return as All Stock Fund’s return benchmark, but Secrest attempts to keep the standard deviation of the returns of the All Stock Fund less than the returns standard deviation of the S& 500. Part of Secrest’s strategy is to keep the turnover ratio of the fund very low so as to keep trading costs as low as possible.

The name of the mutual fund is indicative of the inputs to its portfolio. The All Stock Fund consists of long positions in a vast universe of very different stocks. That universe of stocks includes all the stocks in the S& 500 plus several thousand stocks that trade on other exchanges, on the NASDAQ and even in the area of the over the counter market called the “pink sheets”. Secrest thinks that he has achieved, as much as is practically possible, the highest level of diversification with the thousands of stocks that he has included in the All Stock Fund. By making this portfolio available to investors, Secrest feels that he is not only doing a good job for his company but he is also doing the market a service by providing an efficient portfolio, which market participants can use to truly capitalize on the principles of the capital market line.

All Stock Fund is a public mutual fund, which has to conform to the usual trading restrictions associated with those funds. Secrest wants to initiate a second fund for World Funds. This fund would be marketed to private, sophisticated investors. By placing restrictions on who can invest in the fund, Secrest knows he can use trading strategies other than simply owning long positions in stocks. Secrest begins composing a proposal and preparing a presentation for his idea for this second fund. He will submit the proposal and make the presentation to his supervisors at World Funds. His main point will be that by engaging in strategies other than owning long positions in stocks, he can compose a more efficient portfolio than either the S& 500 or his All Stock Fund. He hopes to use both leverage and the short selling of risky assets as strategies in the new fund that he plans to propose.

Secrest plans to begin his proposal by summarizing what the term efficiency means with respect to managing investment portfolios. He then plans to go on and explain the assumptions behind important and often-used concepts such as beta and the capital market line.

Which of the following is the best definition of an efficient portfolio? The portfolio has:

A)   the lowest possible standard deviation given its return.

B)   no skewness or kurtosis and is normally distributed.

C)   the lowest possible standard deviation of all possible portfolios constructed from available risky assets.

D)   the highest possible return of all possible portfolios constructed from available assets without using leverage.

2.Secrest’s attempt to create a portfolio that is more efficient than the S& 500 by holding all the stocks in the S& 500 and thousands of other stocks is:

A)   possible because simply holding more assets can increase efficiency.

B)   not possible because the S& 500 is the most efficient portfolio possible.

C)   possible, but it is not likely given that Secrest does not trade the stocks very much.

D)   not possible, because the number of assets held in a portfolio is unrelated to efficiency.

3.Which of the following should help improve the efficiency of the Secrest’s proposed private fund?

A)   Short selling risky assets.

B)   Short selling the risk-free asset.

C)   Not investing in pink sheet stocks.

D)   Not investing in pink sheet stocks or NASDAQ stocks.

4.If investors cannot borrow at the risk free rate then this will:

A)   not affect the relationship between the asset’s return and beta, but it will reduce the usefulness of the Treynor measure.

B)   affect the relationship between the asset’s return and beta, but it will not reduce the usefulness of the Treynor measure.

C)   affect the relationship between the asset’s return and beta and reduce the usefulness of the Treynor measure.

D)   not affect the relationship between the asset’s return and beta, and it will not reduce the usefulness of the Treynor measure.

5.Secrest thinks that his All Stock Fund has allowed investors to capitalize on the principles of the capital market line. This may not be true:

A)   if the All Stock Fund is efficient and even if investors cannot borrow at the risk-free rate.

B)   if the All Stock Fund is not efficient but could be true even if investors cannot borrow at the risk-free rate.

C)   if the All Stock Fund is not efficient and/or investors cannot borrow at the risk-free rate.

D)   under no circumstances, and investors probably can capitalize on the principles of the capital market line under the given circumstances.

6.In the absence of short selling of risky assets and borrowing at the risk-free rate, we would expect to see more risk averse investors hold:

A)   concentrated portfolios and less risk averse investors hold more heavily diversified portfolios.

B)   concentrated portfolios and less risk averse investors hold concentrated portfolios.

C)   heavily diversified portfolios and less risk averse investors hold heavily diversified portfolios.

D)   heavily diversified portfolios and less risk averse investors hold more concentrated portfolios.

1.Brad Secrest, CFA has worked for World Funds Incorporated for many years. World Funds offers a variety of publicly traded mutual funds. The funds range from conservative fixed-income funds to high-risk funds that invest in small growth stocks and international stocks. The flagship fund of World Funds is the All Stock Fund, which Secrest manages. The stated goal of the fund is to use a wide variety of stocks to create a very diversified portfolio. In managing the fund, Secrest uses the level of the S& 500’s return as All Stock Fund’s return benchmark, but Secrest attempts to keep the standard deviation of the returns of the All Stock Fund less than the returns standard deviation of the S& 500. Part of Secrest’s strategy is to keep the turnover ratio of the fund very low so as to keep trading costs as low as possible.

The name of the mutual fund is indicative of the inputs to its portfolio. The All Stock Fund consists of long positions in a vast universe of very different stocks. That universe of stocks includes all the stocks in the S& 500 plus several thousand stocks that trade on other exchanges, on the NASDAQ and even in the area of the over the counter market called the “pink sheets”. Secrest thinks that he has achieved, as much as is practically possible, the highest level of diversification with the thousands of stocks that he has included in the All Stock Fund. By making this portfolio available to investors, Secrest feels that he is not only doing a good job for his company but he is also doing the market a service by providing an efficient portfolio, which market participants can use to truly capitalize on the principles of the capital market line.

All Stock Fund is a public mutual fund, which has to conform to the usual trading restrictions associated with those funds. Secrest wants to initiate a second fund for World Funds. This fund would be marketed to private, sophisticated investors. By placing restrictions on who can invest in the fund, Secrest knows he can use trading strategies other than simply owning long positions in stocks. Secrest begins composing a proposal and preparing a presentation for his idea for this second fund. He will submit the proposal and make the presentation to his supervisors at World Funds. His main point will be that by engaging in strategies other than owning long positions in stocks, he can compose a more efficient portfolio than either the S& 500 or his All Stock Fund. He hopes to use both leverage and the short selling of risky assets as strategies in the new fund that he plans to propose.

Secrest plans to begin his proposal by summarizing what the term efficiency means with respect to managing investment portfolios. He then plans to go on and explain the assumptions behind important and often-used concepts such as beta and the capital market line.

Which of the following is the best definition of an efficient portfolio? The portfolio has:

A)   the lowest possible standard deviation given its return.

B)   no skewness or kurtosis and is normally distributed.

C)   the lowest possible standard deviation of all possible portfolios constructed from available risky assets.

D)   the highest possible return of all possible portfolios constructed from available assets without using leverage.

The correct answer was A)

This is one way of defining an efficient portfolio. The other is that it has the highest possible return give a standard deviation. The two statements say the same thing.

2.Secrest’s attempt to create a portfolio that is more efficient than the S& 500 by holding all the stocks in the S& 500 and thousands of other stocks is:

A)   possible because simply holding more assets can increase efficiency.

B)   not possible because the S& 500 is the most efficient portfolio possible.

C)   possible, but it is not likely given that Secrest does not trade the stocks very much.

D)   not possible, because the number of assets held in a portfolio is unrelated to efficiency.

The correct answer was A)

Holding more assets will increase efficiency.

3.Which of the following should help improve the efficiency of the Secrest’s proposed private fund?

A)   Short selling risky assets.

B)   Short selling the risk-free asset.

C)   Not investing in pink sheet stocks.

D)   Not investing in pink sheet stocks or NASDAQ stocks.

The correct answer was A)

Being able to short sell risky assets should improve the efficiency of the portfolio.

4.If investors cannot borrow at the risk free rate then this will:

A)   not affect the relationship between the asset’s return and beta, but it will reduce the usefulness of the Treynor measure.

B)   affect the relationship between the asset’s return and beta, but it will not reduce the usefulness of the Treynor measure.

C)   affect the relationship between the asset’s return and beta and reduce the usefulness of the Treynor measure.

D)   not affect the relationship between the asset’s return and beta, and it will not reduce the usefulness of the Treynor measure.

The correct answer was C)

If investors cannot borrow at the risk-free rate, this will reduce the usefulness of beta. Since beta is an input in the Treynor measure, it will reduce the usefulness of that measure too.

5.Secrest thinks that his All Stock Fund has allowed investors to capitalize on the principles of the capital market line. This may not be true:

A)   if the All Stock Fund is efficient and even if investors cannot borrow at the risk-free rate.

B)   if the All Stock Fund is not efficient but could be true even if investors cannot borrow at the risk-free rate.

C)   if the All Stock Fund is not efficient and/or investors cannot borrow at the risk-free rate.

D)   under no circumstances, and investors probably can capitalize on the principles of the capital market line under the given circumstances.

The correct answer was C)

Either of these conditions, the fund not being efficient and investors not being able to borrow at the risk-free rate, will mean that the principles of the capital market line probably do not hold.

6.In the absence of short selling of risky assets and borrowing at the risk-free rate, we would expect to see more risk averse investors hold:

A)   concentrated portfolios and less risk averse investors hold more heavily diversified portfolios.

B)   concentrated portfolios and less risk averse investors hold concentrated portfolios.

C)   heavily diversified portfolios and less risk averse investors hold heavily diversified portfolios.

D)   heavily diversified portfolios and less risk averse investors hold more concentrated portfolios.

The correct answer was D)

Under these conditions, the capital market line will not work. Thus, investors will not be able to simply invest in the market portfolio and the risk-free asset. They will have to hold different portfolios as indicated.