Risk preferences Sharon Smith, the financial manager for Barnett Corporation, wishes to select one of three prospective investments: X, Y, and Z. Assume that the measure of risk Sharon cares about is an asset's standard deviation. The expected returns and standard deviations of the investments are as follows: 5 a. If Sharon were risk neutral, which investment would she select? Explain why. b. If she were risk averse, which investment would she select? Why? c. If she were risk seeking, which investments would she select? Why? d. Suppose a fourth investment, W, is available. It offers an expected return of 13%, and it has a standard deviation of 9%. If Sharon is risk averse, can you say which investment she will choose? Why or why not? Are there any investments that you are certain she will not choose? - a. If Sharon were risk neutral, which investment might she select? (Choose all that apply.) Data table A. Investment X (Click on the icon here in order to copy the contents of the data table below into a spreadsheet.) B. Investment Y C. Investment Z. D. None of the three investments. Investment Y Expected return 12% 12% 12% Standard deviation 7% 8% 9% Z