Find Various Asset Pricing Models And Their Application In Investment Management

Asset Pricing Models And Their Application In Investment Management

Asset pricing models are financial tools that play a crucial role in investment management. They provide the investors with a framework for understanding the valuation and pricing of financial assets. These models offer valuable insights into the risk and return characteristics of investments.

So, with the help of proper facts and figures, they allow investment managers to make informed decisions and construct portfolios that align with their investment objectives. There are several asset pricing models currently prevalent in the market like –

• Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM)
• Arbitrage Pricing Theory (APT)
• Black Scholes Model
• Fama French Three Factor Model

All these asset pricing models are applied differently in investment management. We will discuss those applications in this article –

1. Portfolio Construction

Asset pricing models provide a comprehensive and systematic approach to all investors. Through these models, they can do all the necessary tasks like portfolio construction or return trade-offs of various assets. The accurate data helps investment managers assess the risk and make better strategic decisions.

Asset Pricing Models like the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) or the Arbitrage Pricing Theory (APT) allow a greater degree of power to the managers. They can estimate the expected risk and return of individual securities. They can even determine their suitability for including them in a portfolio. By combining assets with different risk and return characteristics, investment managers can build diversified portfolios optimizing risk-adjusted returns.

2. Performance Evaluation

Asset pricing models act as a benchmark for evaluating the performance of investment portfolios. These models provide a theoretical framework for comparing the actual returns of a portfolio with the expected returns based on the risk exposures of the assets held.

For example, the Capital Asset Pricing Model allows investment managers to assess whether the excess returns generated by a portfolio are equal to the systematic risks borne by the portfolio. In this way, asset pricing models help managers to evaluate performance by identifying smart investment decisions. Simultaneously, they also help to differentiate between what outsiders call “lucky punts” and genuine analysis of portfolios.

3. Risk Management

Asset pricing models also help investment managers to assess and manage various types of risk in their portfolios. Managers can quantify the associated risks systematically with different assets. With the help of Asset Pricing Models like the CAPM, managers can easily measure and control the overall market risk exposure of their portfolios.

Additionally, with the aid of factor-based models such as the Fama-French Three-Factor Model or the Carhart Four-Factor Model, anyone can get detailed insights into the sources of risk. These asset pricing models can also give accurate figures about the return beyond the market, such as size, value, and momentum. This information is crucial for managers to make necessary adjustments to mitigate specific portfolio risks. On the flip side, they can also use these data to exploit risk factors and generate returns beyond expectations.

4. Asset Valuation

Asset pricing models facilitate the valuation of financial securities by providing a theoretical framework for estimating intrinsic values. For example, we can consider asset pricing models such as the Gordon Growth Model or the Dividend Discount Model. These models help investment managers value stocks by estimating the present value of their future cash flows.

These models also consider various factors like –

• expected dividends
• growth rates
• discount rates

By performing a detailed assessment of all these factors, managers can determine the fair value of the asset. They can also compare the estimated value with the market price and can identify if any securities are undervalued or overvalued and taking necessary investment decisions.

5. Asset Allocation

Asset pricing models are best used to assist investment managers in determining the optimal allocation of assets across different asset classes. For instance, take Asset Pricing Models like Mean-Variance Optimization (MVO).

In this model, the managers take into account the risk and return characteristics of various assets. They can easily identify the most efficient and optimized portfolio allocations using these factors. Then they consider the correlation and covariance among asset returns.

Thus, the data from these models assist managers in designing portfolios that guarantee maximized returns. However, before investing, both the portfolio manager and the investor should understand the given level of risk or minimize risk for a given level of return.

So, we can conclude that asset pricing models are invaluable tools in investment management. They enable investment managers to perform a host of vital functions like constructing well-diversified portfolios, evaluating portfolio performance, managing risk, valuing assets, and determining optimal asset allocations. By incorporating these models into their investment decision-making process, managers can make informed choices that align with their investment objectives and enhance the potential for long-term investment success.