7.6: Beta
- Page ID
- 109581
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In addition to serving as a measure of market risk, Beta tells us how a particular stock moves in relation to the rest of the stock market as a whole.
\[
\beta_A=\frac{\left(\sigma_A\right)\left(\operatorname{corr}_{A, M K T}\right)}{\sigma_{M K T}}
\notag \]
where
\(\beta_A\) represents the Beta of Stock \(A\)
\(\sigma_A\) represents the standard deviation of stock \(A\)
corr \(_{A, M K T}\) represents the correlation between stock \(A\) and the overall market \(\sigma_{\text {MKT }}\) represents the standard deviation of the overall market
Consider the following example. Stock A has a standard deviation of \(60 \%\) while the overall stock market has a standard deviation of \(25 \%\). Assuming that the correlation between Stock A and the overall market is 0.30 , what is the beta of Stock A?
\[
\text { Beta }=[(60)(.30)] /(25)=18 / 25=.72
\notag \]
What is the Market?
The market refers to a portfolio of all investment assets (stocks, bonds, gold , art, etc.). However, in more practical terms, the market usually refers to the stock market and can be measured by a market index (such as the S&P 500 or Dow Jones Industrial Average).

