Please use the following data to answer the questions. Your first task is to compute the monthly holding period returns for each stock for each month, using the Holding Period Return formula, which is HPR = (P₁ - P₀)/P₀, where P₁ is the end of period price and P₀ is the start of period price. Be very careful to not mix up your dates (you will have 11 HPRs in total for each company). After you have computed the HPRs, then answer the following questions.

	Date	Company A	HPR Company A	Company B	HPR Company B
Period 1	1/1/2020	$135.25		$156.50
Period 2	2/1/2020	$145.95		$161.54
Period 3	3/1/2020	$164.78		$179.58
Period 4	4/1/2020	$178.23		$183.56
Period 5	5/1/2020	$180.57		$190.87
Period 6	6/1/2020	$185.75		$211.20
Period 7	7/1/2020	$190.56		$245.25
Period 8	8/1/2020	$200.56		$158.32
Period 9	9/1/2020	$215.87		$162.49
Period 10	10/1/2020	$223.55		$265.50
Period 11	11/1/2020	$230.22		$289.45
Period 12	12/1/2020	$250.55		$277.50

What is the variance of the sample of monthly stock returns for COMPANY A?

Multiple Choice

• 10.25

• 17.91

• 12.53

• 15.98