Download the monthly Adjusted Closing Price for Target Corp. $($Ticker$=$TGT$)$ and SPDR S&P $500$ ETF Trust $($ticker $=$ SPY$)$ from Yahoo website from January $1,2014$ to December $31,2018.$

Compute the following:

Average monthly return for TGT and SPY

Variance of returns for TGT and SPY

Standard deviation of returns for TGT and SPY

Steps to download monthly price data from Yahoo! Finance website:

Go to Yahoo! Finance website, enter the security$$s ticker symbol in $$Quote Lookup$$ box. Then, click on $$Historical Data$$ on the left panel. Enter $$Start Date$$ as given in the problem. Enter $$End Date$$ as given in the problem. Keep $$Historical Prices$.$ No need to change this tab. For the frequency, change from $$Daily$$ to $$Monthly$$ as we are interested in monthly returns in this problem. Click on $$Download$.$ A ticker.csv file will be downloaded on your computer.

Open an Excel file. Save this file as Yourname$\_$PE$1\_$RealWorld.xlsx file before you start anything $$ very important step! Save your file as $.$xlsx file. Comma delimited $(.$csv$)$ files do not retain the formulae and cell references after closing the file.

We only need the $$Date$$ and $$Adj Close$$ columns. Note that the $$Adj Close$$ prices in Yahoo! Finance website is already adjusted for dividends and stock splits so it makes it simpler to calculate returns.

Note: Return for each month $=$ Current Adj Close$/$Previous Adj Close $-1$