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WHAT DOES

ARBITRAGE PRICING THEORY


- APT MEAN?

An asset pricingmodelbased on the ideathat an asset's


returns can be predicted usingthe relationship between
that same asset and many common risk factors.
Created in 1976 by Stephen Ross,this theory predicts a
relationship between the returns of aportfolio and the
returns of a single asset through a linear combination of
many independent macro-economic variables.

The basis of arbitrage pricing theory is the idea that the


price of a security is driven by a number of factors.
These can be divided into two groups: macro factors, and
company specific factors.
The name of the theory comes from the fact that this
division, together with the no arbitrage assumption can be
used to derive the following formula:
r = rf + 1f1 + 2f2 + 3f3 +
where r is the expected return on the security,
rf is the risk free rate,
Each f is a separate factor and
each is a measure of the relationship between the
security price and that factor.

CAPM
Vs
APT

The difference between CAPM and arbitrage


pricing theory is that CAPM has a single noncompany factor and a single beta,
whereas arbitrage pricing theory separates
out non-company factors into as many as
proves necessary.
Each of these requires a separate beta. The
beta of each factor is the sensitivity of the
price of the security to that factor.

Arbitrage

pricing

theory

does

not

rely

on

measuring

the

performance of the market.


Instead, APT directly relates the price of the security to the
fundamental factors driving it.
The problem with this is that the theory in itself provides no
indication of what these factors are, so they need to be empirically
determined. Obvious factors include economic growth and interest
rates.
The potentially large number of factors means more betas to be
calculated. There is also no guarantee that all the relevant factors
have been identified. This added complexity is the reason
arbitrage pricing theory is far less widely used than CAPM.

ARBITRAGE PRICING THEORY APT

The arbitrage pricing theory (APT) describes the price where a


mis pricedasset is expected to be.
It isoften viewed asan alternative to the capital asset pricing
model (CAPM),since the APThasmore flexible assumption
requirements.
Whereas the CAPM formula requires the market's expected
return, APT uses the risky asset's expected return and the risk
premium ofa number ofmacro-economic factors. Arbitrageurs
use the APTmodel to profit by taking advantage of mis priced
securities.
A mis priced security will have a price that differs from the
theoretical price predicted by the model.

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