Modern Portfolio Theory (MPT)
Chapters in this video
- 0:00 The central principle of MPT: three factors of portfolio risk
- 1:05 Correlation coefficient: the secret weapon for risk reduction
- 2:15 The positive 1.0 trap and why diversification starts below it
- 4:23 The efficient frontier: optimal, suboptimal, and impossible portfolios
- 5:30 Where individual securities plot: the unsystematic risk penalty
- 7:05 Rapid-fire exam recap
What this video covers
- Why standard deviation is the measure of total risk in MPT, and the three factors that determine portfolio risk (weights, standard deviations, and correlation)
- How correlation coefficients range from negative 1.0 to positive 1.0, and why positive 1.0 delivers zero diversification benefit
- Why diversification begins at any correlation below positive 1.0, not only at negative correlations
- What the efficient frontier represents: the set of portfolios with the highest expected return for each level of risk
- Where portfolios plot relative to the frontier (on, below, or above it), and why nothing plots above the boundary
- Where individual securities plot relative to the frontier, and why unsystematic risk keeps them inside the curve
- How adding the risk-free asset creates the Capital Market Line, and why the risk-free asset has zero standard deviation
Read the full lesson, free
This video's complete written lesson is free to read in the CertFuel app, no signup wall. The complete Series 65 course also includes adaptive practice questions and spaced-repetition flashcards, free through December 31, 2026.