Travel Brazil  » The Capital Asset Pricing Model of Stock Investing (CAPM)

The Capital Asset Pricing Model of Stock Investing (CAPM)

In 1990 Harry Markowitz, Merton Miller, and William Sharpe

shared the first Nobel Prize in the very young area of financial

economics. The Nobel committee recognized Harry Markowitz for

developing portofolio theory, Miller for the theory of corporate

finance, and Sharpe for the Capital Asset (stock market) Pricing

Model also known as CAPM.

CAPM was the crowning acheivment of theoretical economists bent

on proving that markets are efficient and work together

mathematically with the precision and elegance of a Rolex watch.

In the 1980s, researching financial economists began to notice a

slew of empirical results that are not consistent with the view

that stock market returns were determined in accordance with

CAPM and stock market efficiency.

It is useful for you to understand what CAPM is because you will

read or hear about it as you progress as a stock market

said to not be priced into the stock in terms of the risk you...

investor. CAPM is a regression model designed to separate out

the general stock market price changes from price changes

specific to a given stock. The general stock market price change

is called unsystematic risk. An investor can get the same return

as the general stock market buying a mutual fund that is indexed

to the stock market such as the Vanguard 500 fund (symbol

VFINX). For this reason the amount of profit you receive on a

specific stock that is as much as the stock market indexes is

said to not be priced into the stock in terms of the risk you

are taking. The amount you make or lose on a given stock as

compared to the stock market averages is considered to be priced

by investors to compensate for the additional risk you take in

buying stock in a single company instead of a fund indexed to

the stock market. The profit or loss that you receive as

compared to the stock market is called systematic risk. The

capital asset pricing model measures systematic risk with a

regression coefficient called beta. When I talk about beta now

you know what it is; it is nothing more than a measure of

additional potential return an investor should receive for

purchasing a single stock based on how risky that stock is. I

want to emphasize that CAPM is based on the notion that the

stock market efficiently translates all information known about

the stock market into stock prices for stock investing purposes.

About the author:

Dr. Brown can teach you how to invest through The Delano Max

Wealth Institute (www.DelanoMax.com). He is dedicated to

providing you with courses and seminars that teach prudent

savings and investing habits. Dr. Brown is also a finance

professor at the University of Puerto Rico at Rio Piedras. He is

also recognized as an expert at low risk, high return investing

and takes great pride in helping others retire safely.