Risk and Return - Accountancy Knowledge (2024)

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The tradeoff between Risk and Return is the principles theme in the investment decisions.Investors take a risk when they expect to be rewarded for taking it.People invest because they hope to get a return from their investment.The Chinese symbols for risk, reproduced below, give a much better description of risk the first symbol is the symbol for “danger”, while the second is the symbol for “opportunity”, making risk a mix of danger and opportunity.

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Return

Benefits for holding an investment over period of time are called return. Some return measures are more useful than others:

Components of Return

There are two components of return:

Yield: The basic component that usually comes to mind when discussing investing returns is periodic cash flows (income) on investment, either interest or dividends.

Capital Gains: The second component is also important, that is the appreciation in the price of the assets, commonly called capital gain (loss). It is simply the price change. It is the difference between the purchase price and the price at which the assets can be sold

FormulaRisk and Return - Accountancy Knowledge (2)

Where: yield component = 0 or + Price change component = 0, +, –

Holding Period Return

The simplest measure of return is the holding period return. This calculation is independent of the passage of time and considers only a beginning point and an ending point.It makes no difference if the holding period return is calculated on the basis of a single share or 100 shares:

Formula

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Example # 1:

Someone might buy 100 shares of stock at Rs. 25 face value, receives a 10 cent per share dividend, and later sell the shares for Rs. 30. The holding period return is?

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Example # 2:

Determine the return of the two video machines and decide which is to select?

Machine A

  • Purchase price last year: Rs. 20,000
  • Current market value: Rs. 21,500
  • After-tax cash receipt: Rs. 800

Machine B

  • Purchase price 4 years ago, but market value dropped from Rs.12,000 to Rs.11,800 this year
  • After-tax cash receipt: Rs. 3,700

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Choose Machine B on the basis of high return compared to Machine A

Return Relative

The return relative (RR) obtains by adding 1.0 to the Holding period return.

Formula

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Example # 3:

Assume that you purchase a 10 percent coupon bond @ 960, held one year and sold for 1,020. Calculate return relative?

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Real Rate of Return

All are the returns are nominal or money returns. They measure amount or change in the value of investment but ignore the purchasing power of the currency.To capture this dimension we have to incorporate real return of return or Inflation adjusted return. Consumer price index is used to measure the rate of inflation.To calculate inflation adjusted return we use following formula:

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TRIA = Total Return Inflation Adjusted, NR = Nominal Return, IF = Rate of inflation

Example # 4:

Nominal return for OGDCL in 2008 was 28.57%. The rate of inflation was 1.61%. Calculate real return (inflation adjusted) for 2008?

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>> PracticeRisk and Return MCQS.

Risk

It is not sensible to talk about investment returns without talking about risk, because investment decisions involve a trade-off between the two—return and risk are opposite sides of the same coin.Investors should be “willing to purchase a particular asset if the expected return is sufficient to compensate risk.Risk is the chance that the actual outcome of an investment will differ from the expected outcome.

Types of Risk

Dividing total risk into its two components, a general component and a specific component:

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Systematic (Market) Risk

Risk of broad macro factors affecting all securities, the investor cannot reduce or escape this part of the risk, because no matter how well he or she diversifies, the risk of the overall market cannot be avoided. Clearly, market risk is critical to all investors.

Nonsystematic (Non-market) Risk

Nonsystematic Risk is the variability in a security’s total returns not related to overall market variability is called the nonsystematic (non-market) risk. This risk is unique to a particular security or market so it can be reduce by diversification.

Measuring Future Risk (Single Investment)

Risk is often associated with the dispersion in the likely outcomes. Dispersion refers to variability. Knowing the mean of series is not enough; the investor also needs to know something about the variability in the returns.

Probability Distribution

A set of possible values that a random variable assumes and their associated probabilities of occurrence are called probability distribution, weather is random variable chance will be rain and no rain. Today is probability is 40% and 60 %. It is total judgmental process to access the chances or probability of occurrence an event.

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Expected Rate of Return

If we multiply each possible outcome’s by its probability of occurrence and then sums these products.

Formula

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Example # 5:

Draw payoff matrix and find out expected rate of return for the following probability distribution.

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Standard Deviation

The most commonly used measure of dispersion over some period of years is the standard deviation, which measures the deviation of each observation from the arithmetic mean of the observations and is a reliable measure of variability, because all the information in a sample is use. The standard deviation is a measure of the total risk of an asset or a portfolio. The standard deviation can be calculated by

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Example # 6:

Calculate Standard deviation for Illustration 5 above

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Variance

Measure of variability, the mean square deviation from mean or expected values, it is square root of standard deviation.

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Example # 7:

Calculate Variance for Illustration 4

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Co-efficient of variation

The ratio of the standard deviation of a distribution to the mean of that distribution, it is a measure of relative risk.

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>>> Read Risk and Return MCQS.

Example # 8:

Comparison of 2 Investments in terms of Risk & Return. Which is the best Investment?

Name of Investment

Risk (Std Dev)

Expected Return

T-Bill5%

10%

Shares25%30%

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>>> PracticeRisk and Return Quiz 1.

Risk and Return - Accountancy Knowledge (2024)

FAQs

What is risk and return in accounting? ›

Risk and Return Definition

The concept of risk and return makes reference to the possible economic loss or gain from investing in securities. A gain made by an investor is referred to as a return on their investment. Conversely, the risk signifies the chance or odds that the investor is going to lose money.

How do you solve risk and return? ›

To calculate an appropriate risk-return tradeoff, investors must consider many factors, including overall risk tolerance, the potential to replace lost funds, and more. Investors consider risk-return tradeoff on individual investments and across portfolios when making investment decisions.

How do you understand risk and return? ›

Definitions and Basics

The risk-return tradeoff states that the potential return rises with an increase in risk. Using this principle, individuals associate low levels of uncertainty with low potential returns, and high levels of uncertainty or risk with high potential returns.

What is the basic rule of risk to return? ›

Rule one: Risk and return go hand-in-hand. Higher returns mean greater risk, while lower returns promise greater safety.

What is the formula for risk return? ›

The risk-reward ratio is calculated by dividing the potential reward or return of an investment by the amount of risk undertaken to achieve that return. A higher ratio indicates that the potential reward is greater relative to the risk involved.

What is an example of a risk return? ›

For example, if you buy stock for $10,000 and sell it for $12,500, your return is a $2,500 gain. Or, if you buy stock for $10,000 and sell it for $9,500, your return is a $500 loss. Of course, you don't have to sell to figure return on the investments in your portfolio.

What is the formula to calculate risk? ›

Risk is the combination of the probability of an event and its consequence. In general, this can be explained as: Risk = Likelihood × Impact. In particular, IT risk is the business risk associated with the use, ownership, operation, involvement, influence and adoption of IT within an enterprise.

How do you measure risk vs return? ›

The Sharpe ratio measures the profit of an investment that exceeds the risk-free rate per unit of standard deviation. It is calculated by taking the return of the investment, subtracting the risk-free rate, and dividing this result by the investment's standard deviation. All else equal, a higher Sharpe ratio is better.

How do you calculate mean in risk and return? ›

Mean returns are calculated by adding the product of all possible return probabilities and returns and placing them against the weighted average of the sum.

What is the risk-return rule? ›

The risk/return ratio helps investors assess whether a potential investment is worth making. A lower ratio means that the potential reward is greater than the potential risk, while a high ratio means the opposite.

How do you estimate risk and return? ›

The actual calculation to determine risk vs. reward is very easy. You simply divide your net profit (the reward) by the price of your maximum risk. Sadly, retail investors might end up losing a lot of money when they try to invest their own money.

What are the fundamentals of risk and return? ›

The term return refers to income from a security after a defined period either in the form of interest, dividend, or market appreciation in security value. On the other hand, risk refers to uncertainty over the future to get this return. In simple words, it is a probability of getting return on security.

Is risk and return positive or negative? ›

key takeaways. A positive correlation exists between risk and return: the greater the risk, the higher the potential for profit or loss. Using the risk-reward tradeoff principle, low levels of uncertainty (risk) are associated with low returns and high levels of uncertainty with high returns.

What is return vs risk ratio? ›

To calculate the risk/return ratio (also known as the risk-reward ratio), you need to divide the amount you stand to lose if your investment does not perform as expected (the risk) by the amount you stand to gain if it does (the reward).

What is the return and risk measures? ›

Investment risk is the idea that an investment will not perform as expected, that its actual return will deviate from the expected return. Risk is measured by the amount of volatility, that is, the difference between actual returns and average (expected) returns.

What is risk and return analysis of? ›

Risk and return analysis means looking at how much money you might make compared to how risky an investment is. The more risk, the more potential gain you usually need to make the investment worth it. Risk and return analysis helps you figure this out. All investments have some uncertainty.

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