# Midterm 2 Exam Synopsis (outline of topics covered since Midterm 1)

In the link listed below, I provide access to the Midterm 2 Synopsis that will serve as the outline for next Tuesday’s Midterm Exam 2 review session (Midterm Exam 2 is schedule to be given during class on Thursday, November 2):

Finance-4335-Fall-2017-Midterm-2-Synopsis

# Office hour today

My office hour today will begin at 10 AM this morning rather than 930 AM.

# On the role of replicating portfolios in the pricing of financial derivatives

Replicating portfolios play a central role in terms of pricing financial derivatives. Here is a succinct summary from last Thursday’s class meeting:

1. Buying forward is equivalent to buying the underlying on margin, and selling forward is equivalent to shorting the underlying and lending money. Like options, forwards and futures are priced by pricing the replicating portfolio and invoking the “no-arbitrage” condition. If the forward/futures price it too low, then one can earn positive returns with zero risk and zero net investment by buying forward, shorting the underlying and lending money. Similarly, if the forward futures price is too high, one can earn positive returns with zero risk and zero net investment by selling forward and buying the underlying with borrowed money. This is commonly referred to as “riskless arbitrage”; it’s riskless because you’re perfectly hedged, and it’s arbitrage because you are buying low and selling high.
2. The replicating portfolio for a call option is a margined investment in the underlying. For example, in my teaching note entitled “A Simple Model of a Financial Market”, I provide a numerical example where the interest rate is zero, there are two states of the world, a bond which pays off $1 in both states is worth$1 today, and a stock that pays off $2 in one state and$.50 in the other state is also worth one dollar. In that example, the replicating portfolio for a European call option with an exercise price of $1 consists of 2/3 of 1 share of stock (costing$0.66) and a margin balance consisting of a short position in 1/3 of a bond (which is worth -$0.33). Thus, the value of the call option is$0.66 – $0.33 =$0.33.
3. Since the replicating portfolio for a call option is a margined investment in the underlying, it should come as no surprise that the replicating portfolio for a put option consists of a short position in the underlying combined with lending. Thus, in order to price the put, you need to determine and price the components of the replicating portfolio; we will begin class on Tuesday, 10/24 by determining the the relative weightings (delta and beta) for the put’s replicating portfolio.

Next week, we will continue our coverage of the topic of financial derivatives in Finance 4335.  Regarding futures and forward contracts (covered on pp. 5-13 of the Derivatives Theory, part 1 lecture note and discussed in class this past Thursday), it’s hard to beat the following video tutorial on this topic:

# Spring 2018 Course Announcement – Finance 4335: Business Risk Management

Here’s the “prospectus” for my Spring 2018  Finance 4335 risk management course; if you click on the image, this will bring up a full-page PDF version.  If you have enjoyed Finance 4335 this semester, I hope you’ll tell your friends about the course and encourage them to enroll in it (and/or contact me if they have any further questions)!

# Spring 2018 Course Announcement – Finance 4366: Options, Futures and Other Derivatives

Here’s the “prospectus” for my Spring 2018  Finance 4335 risk management course; if you click on the image, this will bring up a full-page PDF version.  If you have enjoyed Finance 4366 this semester, I hope you’ll tell your friends about the course and encourage them to enroll in it (and/or contact me if they have any further questions)!

# Insights gleaned from our coverage of portfolio and capital market theory

The topics covered during the course of the last couple of Finance 4335 class meetings (portfolio and capital market theory) rank among the most important finance topics; after all, the scientific foundations for these topics won Nobel prizes for Markowitz (portfolio theory) and Sharpe (capital market theory). The following outline pretty much summarizes what we covered in class on Thursday, October 12 and Tuesday, October 17:

• Portfolio Theory
1. Mean-variance efficiency
2. Portfolio Mean-Variance calculations
3. Minimum variance portfolio (n = 2 case)
4. Efficient frontier (n = 2 case under various correlation assumptions)
• Capital Market Theory
1. Efficient frontiers with multiple number (“large” n) of risky assets (aka the “general” case)
2. Portfolio allocation under the general case
• degree of risk aversion/risk tolerance determines how steeply sloped indifference curves are
• indifference curves for investors with high (low) degrees of risk tolerance (aversion) are less steeply sloped than indifference curves than for investors with low (high) degrees of risk tolerance (aversion)).
• Optimal portfolios (i.e., portfolios that maximize expected utility) occur at points of tangency between indifference curves and efficient frontier.
3. Introduction of a risk-free asset simplifies the portfolio selection problem since the efficient frontier is now a straight line rather than an ellipse in $E({r_p}), {\sigma _p}$ space. The same selection principle holds as in the previous point (point 2); i.e., investors determine optimal portfolio by finding the tangency between highest indifference curve and the efficient frontier. The point of tangency occurs on the capital market line (CML) where the Sharpe ratio is maximized; everyone chooses some combination of the risk-free asset and the market portfolio, and risk tolerance determines whether the point of tangency involves either a lending (low risk tolerance) or borrowing (high risk tolerance) allocation strategy.
4. The security market line (SML), aka the CAPM, is deduced by arbitrage arguments. Specifically, it must be the case that all risk-return trade-offs (as measured by the ratio of “excess” return ($E({r_j}) - {r_f}$) from investing in a risky rather than risk-free asset, divided by the risk taken on by the investor (${\sigma _{j,M}}$) are the same. If not, then there will be excess demand for investments with more favorable risk-return trade-offs and excess supply for investments with less favorable risk-return trade-offs). “Equilibrium” occurs when markets clear; i.e., when there is neither excess demand or supply, which is characterized by risk-return ratios being the same for all possible investments. When this occurs, then the CAPM obtains: $E({r_j}) = {r_f} + {\beta _j}(E({r_M}) - {r_f})$.

# Problem Set 7 helpful hints

1. The least risky combination of Security A and Security B in Problem 1 is found by calculating ${w_A} = \displaystyle\frac{{\sigma _B^2 - {\sigma _{AB}}}}{{\sigma _A^2 + \sigma _B^2 - 2{\sigma _{AB}}}}$ and ${w_B} = 1 - {w_A}$.
2. It will always be the case for 2 security portfolios that by following the minimum variance portfolio weighting scheme in the previous bullet point, such a portfolio must have zero variance if ${\rho _{AB}} = 1$ or -1.
3. In part B of Problem 2, the Sharpe Ratio for security j is $\displaystyle\frac{{E({r_j}) - {r_f}}}{{{\sigma _j}}}$.