A particular firm's portfolio is composed of two assets, which we will call" A" and "B." Let X denote the annual rate of return from asset A, and let Y denote the annual rate of return from asset B. Suppose that E(X) = 0.15, E(Y) = 0.20, SD (X) = 0.05, SD (Y) = 0.06, and CORR (X, Y) = 0.30. Use a spreadsheet to perform the following analysis.

(a) What is the expected return of investing 50% of the portfolio in asset A and 50% of the portfolio in asset B? What is the variance of this return?

(b) Replace CORR (X, Y) = 0.30 by CORR (X, Y) = 0.60, 0, -0.30, and -0.60 and answer the questions in part (a). What is the impact of correlation on the expected returns and its variance? Explain why this is so.