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 Q-IPS: Stephenson, age 55 and single, is a surgeon who has accumulated a substantial investment portfolio without a clear long-term strategy in mind. Two of his patients who work in financial markets comment as follows: • James: ‘‘My investment firm, based on its experience with investors, has standard investment policy statements in five categories. You would be better served to adopt one of these standard policy statements instead of spending time developing a policy based on your individual circumstances.’’ • Charles: ‘‘Developing a long-term policy can be unwise given the fluctuations of the market. You want your investment adviser to react continuously to changing conditions and not be limited by a set policy.’’ Stephenson hires a financial adviser, Caroline. At their initial meeting, Caroline compiles the following notes: • Stephenson currently has a $2.0 million portfolio that has a large concentration in smallcapitalization U.S. equities. Over the past five years, the portfolio has averaged 20 percent annual total return on investment. Stephenson hopes that, over the long term, his portfolio will continue to earn 20 percent annually. When asked about his risk tolerance, he described it as “average.” He was surprised when informed that U.S. small-cap portfolios have experienced extremely high volatility. • He does not expect to retire before age 70. His current income is more than sufficient to meet his expenses. Upon retirement, he plans to sell his surgical practice and use the proceeds to purchase an annuity to cover his postretirement cash flow needs. • Both his income and realized capital gains are taxed at a 30 percent rate. No pertinent legal or regulatory issues apply. He has no pension or retirement plan but does have sufficient health insurance for postretirement needs. • The comments about investment policy statements: Table 1 Stephenson Investment Profile Type of investor Individual; surgeon, 55 years of age, in good health Asset base $2 million Stated return desire or investment goal 10 percentage points above the average annual return on U.S. small-capitalization stocks Annual spending needs $150,000 Annual income from non-portfolio sources (before tax) $350,000 from surgical practice Other return factors Inflation is 3% Risk considerations Owns large concentration in U.S. smallcapitalization stocks Specific liquidity requirements $70,000 charitable donation in 10 months Time specifications Retirement at age 70 Tax concerns Income and capital gains taxed at 30 percent  The comments about investment policy statements made by Stephenson’s patients are best characterized as

Consider an US-based foundation with spending rate of 3 percent and cost of earning investment returns has averaged 50 basis points annually. The asset allocation and the set of capital market expectations are shown below.  The expected long-term inflation rate is 2.5 percent. Table 3 Capital Market Expectations Asset class E(ri) si Correlations A B C D A US equities 9% 18% 1       B Ex-US equities 8 14 0.60 1     C US bonds 4 8 0.30 0.20 1   D Real estate 1 7 0.50 0.40 0.10 1    Table 4 Corner portfolios Portfolio E(rp) sp Sp wi A B C D 1 9.0% 18.0% 0.39 100% 0% 0% 0% 2 7.9 16.7 0.35 65 35 0 0 3 7.5 15.4 0.38 37 53 0 10 4 5.0 12.4 0.36 0 25 43 32 5 4.6 10.1 0.32 0 11 55 34 What is the foundation return requirement in percent?

Which of the following statements about corner portfolios is incorrect?

Consider an US-based foundation with spending rate of 3 percent and cost of earning investment returns has averaged 50 basis points annually. The asset allocation and the set of capital market expectations are shown below.  The expected long-term inflation rate is 2.5 percent. Table 3 Capital Market Expectations Asset class E(ri) si Correlations A B C D A US equities 9% 18% 1       B Ex-US equities 8 14 0.60 1     C US bonds 4 8 0.30 0.20 1   D Real estate 1 7 0.50 0.40 0.10 1    Table 4 Corner portfolios Portfolio E(rp) sp Sp wi A B C D 1 9.0% 18.0% 0.39 100% 0% 0% 0% 2 7.9 16.7 0.35 65 35 0 0 3 7.5 15.4 0.38 37 53 0 10 4 5.0 12.4 0.36 0 25 43 32 5 4.6 10.1 0.32 0 11 55 34 What is the relative weight, w, of the two corner portfolios identified in the previous question in the desired SAA?

Consider the following end of year prices, rounded to a dollar of  DGT (SPDR Global Dow) – 150 multinational blue-chip companies, and IWO (iShares Russell 2000 Growth) – small-capitalization growth sector of the U.S. equity market.Answer the questions below using the log-returns. Whenever appropriate, assume that the degree of integration of US market is 0.70, the correlation of US market with the global market is 0.45, there is no liquidity premium, and the Sharpe ratio of the global market is 0.30. Risk free rate is 2%. Year DGT IWO 2010 60   87 2011 54   91 2012 59 102 2013 69 139 What is the sample covariance between the returns on DGT and IWO?

The following trade quotes were observed during the trading day BID Ask   Time Price Size Price Size   10:00am $12.10 300 $12.16 400  1:00pm $12 300 $12.07 400  2:00pm $11.8 300 $11.88 400     Assume the following trades take place At 10:00 am the trader placed the order to sell 100 shares. The execution price was $12.11. At 1:00 pm the trader placed an order to sell 300 shares. The execution price was $12.00. At 2:00 pm the trader placed an order to sell 600 shares. The average execution price was $11.75The volume-weighted average price (VWAP) for the trades is

Quantitative Equity Design (QED) is a quantitative equity fund manager. QED forecasts monthly alphas for stocks in its 3,000 stock universe. The number of independent forecasts made on a monthly basis is 25. If the model employed by QED has an information coefficient of 0.15, the information ratio for QED is closest to:

Which of the following is the fourth statistical moment of the distribution and measures how much of the distribution is present in its tails?

Suppose an analyst is valuing two markets. Market A is a developed market, and Market B is an emerging market. The investor’s time horizon is five years. The other pertinent facts are:   Measure Value Sharpe ratio of the global portfolio 0.29 Standard deviation of the global portfolio 8% Risk-free rate of return 4.5% Degree of market integration for Market A 80% Degree of market integration for Market B 65% Standard deviation for Market A 18% Standard deviation for Market B 26% Correlation of Market A with global portfolio .87   Correlation of Market B with global portfolio .63   Estimated illiquidity premium for A 0   Estimated illiquidity premium for B 2.4   Referring to Table: What is the expected co variance between the markets? 

The covariance between the return on a project and the market return is 0.64. The market returns have a standard deviation of 0.9. What is the project’s beta?