Consider the following six months of returns for two stocks and a portfolio of those two stocks:

Note: The portfolio is composed of 50% of Stock A and 50% of Stock B.

a. What is the expected return and standard deviation of returns for each of the two stocks?

b. What is the expected return and standard deviation of returns for the portfolio?

c. Is the portfolio more or less risky than the two stocks? Why?

Jan Stock A Stock B 2% - 1% Feb 5% - 4% Mar -6% 7% Apr 3% 2% May - 2% 3% Jun 4% -3% Portfolio 0.5% 0.5% 0.5% 0.5% 0.5% 0.5%