Financial analysts prefer to use the measure of risk referred to as beta. Betas for individual stocks are determined by simple linear regression. The dependent variable is the total return for the stock and the independent variable is the total return for the stock market. For this case problem we will use the S&P $500$ index as the measure of the total return for the stock market, and an estimated regression equation will be developed using monthly data. The beta for the stock is the slope of the estimated regression equation $($b$1).$ The data contained in the file named Beta provides the total return $($capital appreciation plus dividends$)$ over $36$ months for eight widely traded common stocks and the S&P $500.$