Modern Portfolio Theory - Comparison With Arbitrage Pricing Theory

Comparison With Arbitrage Pricing Theory

The SML and CAPM are often contrasted with the arbitrage pricing theory (APT), which holds that the expected return of a financial asset can be modeled as a linear function of various macro-economic factors, where sensitivity to changes in each factor is represented by a factor specific beta coefficient.

The APT is less restrictive in its assumptions: it allows for a statistical model of asset returns, and assumes that each investor will hold a unique portfolio with its own particular array of betas, as opposed to the identical "market portfolio". Unlike the CAPM, the APT, however, does not itself reveal the identity of its priced factors - the number and nature of these factors is likely to change over time and between economies.

Read more about this topic:  Modern Portfolio Theory

Famous quotes containing the words comparison with, comparison and/or theory:

    Clay answered the petition by declaring that while he looked on the institution of slavery as an evil, it was ‘nothing in comparison with the far greater evil which would inevitably flow from a sudden and indiscriminate emancipation.’
    State of Indiana, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)

    Certainly there is not the fight recorded in Concord history, at least, if in the history of America, that will bear a moment’s comparison with this, whether for the numbers engaged in it, or for the patriotism and heroism displayed.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    The theory seems to be that so long as a man is a failure he is one of God’s chillun, but that as soon as he has any luck he owes it to the Devil.
    —H.L. (Henry Lewis)