The Excel File named Data Set for Autumn 2022 Coursework in Moodle contains the adjusted closing prices for 15 big US companies at the beginning of the month, the monthly market risk free rate and the monthly return on the market portfolio. The risk free rate and market return data come from Kenneth French's website. The market portfolio is a huge portfolio constructed with all assets traded on the US stock exchanges. The data runs from May 2016 to September 2019 there are 41 closing prices for the firms, and 40 data points for the risk free rate and the market rate. When you calculate returns, you will obviously have 40 returns to match the 40 market returns. We avoid data after September 2019 to exclude the various turbulences caused by the pandemic and the war in Eastern Europe. For the Coursework, you are required to: i) estimate the single index model for each of the firms (ie, 15 estimations) ii) form an equally weighted portfolio with the 15 firms and estimate the single index model for the portfolio. Provide all the summary statistics for all firms, market portfolio and equally weighted portfolio; and for the single index models. Report your results in a nicely drawn table (Do not copy and paste the tables from Excel). Interpret the R-square for the single index model for individual firms, and the R-square for the single index model for the equally weighted portfolio. Compare and contrast the R-square. Discuss what happens to idiosyncratic risk when you move from investment in an individual firm to an equally weighted portfolio

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