Reading 36 Using Multifactor Models
Reading 36 Using Multifactor Models
Which of the following is NOT an assumption necessary to derive the arbitrage pricing
theory (APT)?
Janice Barefoot, CFA, has been managing a portfolio for a client who has asked Barefoot to
use the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) as a benchmark. In her second year, Barefoot
used 29 of the 30 DJIA stocks. She selected a non-DJIA stock in the same industry as the
omitted DJIA stock to replace that stock. Compared to the DJIA, Barefoot placed a lower
weight on the communication stocks and a higher weight on the other stocks still in the
portfolio. Over that year, the non-DJIA stock in the portfolio had a positive and higher return
than the omitted DJIA stock. The communication stocks had a negative return while all of the
other stocks had a positive return. The portfolio managed by Barefoot outperformed the
DJIA. Based on this we can say that the return from factor tilts and asset selection were:
Summer Vista decides to develop a fundamental factor model. She establishes a proxy for
the market portfolio, and then considers the importance of various factors in determining
stock returns. She decides to use the following factors in her model:
Which of the following factors is least appropriate for Vista's factor model?
Janice Barefoot, CFA, has managed a portfolio where she used the Dow Jones Industrial
Average (DJIA) as a benchmark. In the past two years the average monthly return on her
portfolio has been higher than that of the DJIA. To get a measure of active return per unit of
active risk Barefoot should compute the:
information ratio, which is the standard deviation of the differences between the
A)
portfolio and benchmark returns divided by the average of those differences.
Sharpe ratio, which is the standard deviation of the differences between the
B)
portfolio and benchmark returns divided into the average of those differences.
information ratio, which is the average excess portfolio return over the benchmark
C) divided by the standard deviation of the differences between the portfolio and
benchmark returns.
Assume you are considering forming a common stock portfolio consisting of 25%
Stonebrook Corporation (Stone) and 75% Rockway Corporation (Rock). As expressed in the
two-factor returns models presented below, both of these stocks' returns are affected by
two common factors: surprises in interest rates and surprises in the unemployment rate.
Assume that at the beginning of the year, interest rates were expected to be 5.1% and
unemployment was expected to be 6.8%. Further, assume that at the end of the year,
interest rates were actually 5.3%, the actual unemployment rate was 7.2%, and there were
no company-specific surprises in returns. This information is summarized in Table 1 below:
Company-specific returns
Actual Expected
surprises
A) 13.2%.
B) 11.0%.
C) 13.0%.
Question #8 of 37 Question ID: 1473932
One of the assumptions of the arbitrage pricing theory (APT) is that there are no arbitrage
opportunities available. An arbitrage opportunity is:
The Real Value Fund is designed to have zero exposure to inflation. However its current
inflation factor sensitivity is 0.30. To correct for this, the portfolio manager should take a:
Assume that at the beginning of the year, interest rates were expected to be 5.1% and
unemployment was expected to be 6.8%. Further, assume that at the end of the year,
interest rates were actually 5.3%, the actual unemployment rate was 7.2%, and there were
no company-specific surprises in returns. This information is summarized in Table 1 below:
Company-specific returns
Actual Expected
surprises
What is the predicted return for Stonebrook if the return unexplained by the model was
-1%?
A) 1.40%.
B) 12.00%.
C) 10.68%.
Which of the following is NOT an underlying assumption of the arbitrage pricing theory
(APT)?
A) A market portfolio exists that contains all risky assets and is mean-variance efficient.
There are a sufficient number of assets for investors to create diversified portfolios
B)
in which firm-specific risk is eliminated.
C) Asset returns are described by a K factor model.
Question #12 of 37 Question ID: 1473949
A portfolio with a factor sensitivity of one to a particular factor in a multi-factor model and
zero to all other factors is called a(n):
A) arbitrage portfolio.
B) tracking portfolio.
C) factor portfolio.
Beta estimates for Growth and Value funds for a three factor model
For the model used as an example in the seminar, if the T-bill rate is 3.5%, what are the
expected returns for the Growth and Value Funds?
E(RGrowth) E(RValue)
A) 37.0% −37.9%
B) 3.1% −3.16%
C) 33.5% −41.4%
factor sensitivities of zero to all factors, positive expected net cash flow, and an
A)
initial investment of zero.
a factor sensitivity of one to a particular factor in a multi-factor model and zero to all
B)
other factors.
a specific set of factor sensitivities designed to replicate the factor exposures of a
C)
benchmark index.
Question #16 of 37 Question ID: 1473927
Assume you are attempting to estimate the equilibrium expected return for a portfolio using
a two-factor arbitrage pricing theory (APT) model. Assume that you have estimated the risk
premium for factor 1 to be 0.02, and the risk premium for factor 2 to be 0.03. The sensitivity
of the portfolio to factor 1 is –1.2 and the portfolios sensitivity to factor 2 is 0.80. Given a risk
free rate equal to 0.03, what is the expected return for the asset?
A) 5.0%.
B) 2.4%.
C) 3.0%.
Given a three-factor arbitrage pricing theory (APT) model, what is the expected return on the
Premium Dividend Yield Fund?
The factor risk premiums to factors 1, 2 and 3 are 8%, 12% and 5%, respectively.
The fund has sensitivities to the factors 1, 2, and 3 of 2.0, 1.0 and 1.0, respectively.
The risk-free rate is 3.0%.
A) 33.0%.
B) 36.0%.
C) 50.0%.
Question #19 of 37 Question ID: 1473961
A portfolio manager uses a two-factor model to manage her portfolio. The two factors are
confidence risk and time-horizon risk. If she wants to bet on an unexpected increase in the
confidence risk factor (which has a positive risk premium), but hedge away her exposure to
time-horizon risk (which has a negative risk premium), she should create a portfolio with a
sensitivity of:
A) −1.0 to the confidence risk factor and 1.0 to the time-horizon factor.
B) 1.0 to the confidence risk factor and 0.0 to the time-horizon factor.
C) 1.0 to the confidence risk factor and -1.0 to the time-horizon factor.
A) systematic risk.
B) unsystematic risk.
C) macroeconomic risks.
Portfolios A and B have an expected return of 4.4% and 5.3% respectively. Assume that a
one-factor APT model is appropriate and the factor sensitivities of portfolios A and B are 0.8
and 1.1 respectively. The risk-free rate and factor risk premium are closest to:
Factor Risk
Risk Free Rate
Premium
A) 2.50% 3.00%
B) 2.00% 3.00%
C) 3.00% 2.00%
Question #22 of 37 Question ID: 1473928
Which of the following is not an assumption of the arbitrage pricing theory (APT)?
Assume you are considering forming a common stock portfolio consisting of 25%
Stonebrook Corporation (Stone) and 75% Rockway Corporation (Rock). As expressed in the
two-factor returns models presented below, both of these stocks' returns are affected by
two common factors: surprises in interest rates and surprises in the unemployment rate.
Assume that at the beginning of the year, interest rates were expected to be 5.1% and
unemployment was expected to be 6.8%. Further, assume that at the end of the year,
interest rates were actually 5.3%, the actual unemployment rate was 7.2%, and there were
no company-specific surprises in returns. This information is summarized in Table 1 below:
Company-specific returns
Actual Expected
surprises
A) 0.25.
B) 0.85.
C) 0.95.
Question #24 of 37 Question ID: 1473948
A portfolio with a specific set of factor sensitivities designed to replicate the factor
exposures of a benchmark index is called a:
A) tracking portfolio.
B) factor portfolio.
C) arbitrage portfolio.
Which of the following does NOT describe the arbitrage pricing theory (APT)?
Rob Tanner, portfolio manager at Alpha Inc. meets his old college friend Del Torres for
lunch. Torres excitedly tells Tanner about his latest work with tracking and factor portfolios.
Torres says he has developed a tracking portfolio to aid in speculating on oil prices and is
working on a factor portfolio with a specific set of factor sensitivities to the Russell 2000.
Tracking Factor
A) No Yes
B) Yes No
C) No No
Marianne Belair, CFA, is a wealth manager for a well-known company in Paris, France. She
has developed macroeconomic factor models on portfolios Alpha and Bravo.
Belair has asked her colleague Pierre Louboutin to calculate the return attributable to a 1.5%
surprise in GDP for an equally weighted portfolio comprising Alpha and Bravo.
Meanwhile, Belair is looking at Merci, a beauty stock for which she has developed a
macroeconomic factor model. The arbitrage-pricing model shows a required return of 10%
and the company-specific surprise for the year was 2%. Exhibit 1 shows additional
information on the model:
Exhibit 1:
Emily Grant, a senior manager at the firm, asks Louboutin to analyze the performance of
three managers using the information in Exhibit 2.
EM 0.5 0.5 1 50 50 1
EC 25.2 10.8 36 70 30 6
EV 21.6 14.4 36 60 40 6
Finally, Belair would like to capitalize on her expectation that real business activity will
increase over the next year. As a separate concern, she has some existing positive exposure
to inflation risk, which she would like to hedge. To achieve her goals she can use the
portfolios in the Exhibit 3 which show the five relevant factors and respective factor
sensitivities:
Exhibit 3:
Risk Factor A B C D E
Pierre's answer to Belair's first request regarding the equally weighted portfolio, is closest
to:
A) 1.75%.
B) 2.13%.
C) 2.63%.
A) 9%.
B) 10%.
C) 11%.
Using Exhibit 2, the portfolio that has the most exposure to asset selection risk is:
A) EM.
B) EC.
C) EV.
Which two portfolios from Exhibit 3 best achieve Belair's goals in relation to business activity
and inflation risk?
A) B and A.
B) B and E.
C) C and E.
X 12% 1.0
Y 16% 1.3
Z 8% 0.9
Which of the following portfolio combinations produces the highest return while maintaining
a beta of 1.00?
C) 100% 0% 0%
Identify the most accurate statement regarding multifactor models from among the
following.
The Arbitrage Pricing Theory (APT) has all of the following characteristics EXCEPT it:
A) Systematic.
B) Unsystematic.
C) Both systematic and unsystematic.
The macroeconomic factor models for the returns on Omni, Inc., (OM) and Garbo
Manufacturing (GAR) are:
What is the expected return on a portfolio invested 60% in Omni and 40% in Garbo?
A) 20.96%.
B) 19.96%.
C) 18.0%.
Given a three-factor arbitrage pricing theory APT model, what is the expected return on the
Freedom Fund?
The factor risk premiums to factors 1, 2, and 3 are 10%, 7% and 6%, respectively.
The Freedom Fund has sensitivities to the factors 1, 2, and 3 of 1.0, 2.0 and 0.0,
respectively.
The risk-free rate is 6.0%.
A) 33.0%.
B) 30.0%.
C) 24.0%.