Saturday, June 19, 2010

Arbitrage Pricing Theory - APT

What Does Arbitrage Pricing Theory - APT Mean?
An asset pricing model based on the idea that an asset's returns can be predicted using the relationship between that same asset and many common risk factors. Created in 1976 by Stephen Ross, this theory predicts a relationship between the returns of a portfolio and the returns of a single asset through a linear combination of many independent macro-economic variables.
Arbitrage Pricing Theory - APT
The arbitrage pricing theory (APT) describes the price where a mispriced asset is expected to be. It is often viewed as an alternative to the capital asset pricing model (CAPM), since the APT has more flexible assumption requirements. Whereas the CAPM formula requires the market's expected return, APT uses the risky asset's expected return and the risk premium of a number of macro-economic factors. Arbitrageurs use the APT model to profit by taking advantage of mispriced securities. A mispriced security will have a price that differs from the theoretical price predicted by the model. By going short an over priced security, while concurrently going long the portfolio the APT calculations were based on, the arbitrageur is in a position to make a theoretically risk-free profit
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Arbitrage Pricing Theory - APT

What Does Arbitrage Pricing Theory - APT Mean?
An asset pricing model based on the idea that an asset's returns can be predicted using the relationship between that same asset and many common risk factors. Created in 1976 by Stephen Ross, this theory predicts a relationship between the returns of a portfolio and the returns of a single asset through a linear combination of many independent macro-economic variables.
Arbitrage Pricing Theory - APT
The arbitrage pricing theory (APT) describes the price where a mispriced asset is expected to be. It is often viewed as an alternative to the capital asset pricing model (CAPM), since the APT has more flexible assumption requirements. Whereas the CAPM formula requires the market's expected return, APT uses the risky asset's expected return and the risk premium of a number of macro-economic factors. Arbitrageurs use the APT model to profit by taking advantage of mispriced securities. A mispriced security will have a price that differs from the theoretical price predicted by the model. By going short an over priced security, while concurrently going long the portfolio the APT calculations were based on, the arbitrageur is in a position to make a theoretically risk-free profit
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Model Risk

What Does Model Risk Mean?
A type of risk that occurs when a financial model used to measure a firm's market risks or value transactions does not perform the tasks or capture the risks it was designed to.

Model risk is considered a subset of operational risk, as model risk mostly affects the firm that creates and uses the model. Traders or other investors who use the model may not completely understand its assumptions and limitations, which limits the usefulness and application of the model itself.

Any model is a simplified version of reality, and with any simplification there is the risk that something will fail to be accounted for.

The use of financial models has become very prevalent in the past decades, in step with advances in computing power, software applications and new types of financial securities. The Long Term Capital Management debacle was attributed to model risk - in this case, a small error in the fund's computer models was made larger by several orders of magnitude because of the highly leveraged trading strategy LTCM employed.

Black Box Model Mean

What Does Black Box Model Mean?
A computer program into which users enter information and the system utilizes pre-programmed logic to return output to the user.
Black Box Model
The "black box" portion of the system contains formulas and calculations that the user does not see nor need to know to use the system. Black box systems are often used to determine optimal trading practices. These systems generate many different types of data including buy and sell signals.

Country Risk Premium - CRP

What Does Country Risk Premium - CRP Mean?
The additional risk associated with investing in an international company rather than the domestic market. Macroeconomic factors such as political instability, volatile exchange rates and economic turmoil causes investors to be wary of overseas investment opportunities and thus require a premium for investing. The country risk premium (CRP) is higher for developing markets than for developed nations.

The CAPM can be adjusted to reflect the additional risks of international investing by adjusting the model for the CRP.

Re = Rf + β(Rm – Rf + CRP)

As expected by general financial theory, investors seeking to invest into a region such asZimbabwe must be compensated with greater expected returns.



Cost Of Equity

In financial theory, the return that stockholders require for a company. The traditional formula for cost of equity (COE) is the dividend capitalization model:

Cost Of Equity

A firm's cost of equity represents the compensation that the market demands in exchange for owning the asset and bearing the risk of ownership.

he capital asset pricing model (CAPM) is another method used to determine cost of equity.

CAPM

A model that describes the relationship between risk and expected return and that is used in the pricing of risky securities.
Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM)


The general idea behind CAPM is that investors need to be compensated in two ways: time value of money and risk. The time value of money is represented by the risk-free (rf) rate in the formula and compensates the investors for placing money in any investment over a period of time. The other half of the formula represents risk and calculates the amount of compensation the investor needs for taking on additional risk. This is calculated by taking a risk measure (beta) that compares the returns of the asset to the market over a period of time and to the market premium (Rm-rf).