The Capital Asset Pricing Model Versus The Arbitrage Pricing Theory

"This paper describes both the Capital Asset Pricing Model and the Arbitrage Pricing Theory. Discussion of the CAPM includes a detailed definition of its assumptions and a review of its conclusions. The APT is developed in a more rigorous and complete fashion. Discussion of the APT continues by defining four possible macrofactors and using Discounted Cash Flow analysis as supporting evidence of their validity. The final chapter presents a detailed summary and comparison of the two models [sic] strengths and weaknesses. It is evident that without additional testing and analysis of the APT, researchers remain unable to agree on which model provides the most accurate estimate of security prices. Researchers advocating the APT maintain that it is the superior model, however, they have not been able to convince many practitioners."--Author's abstract.

Two of the most important and well known models for predicting equity returns ar e the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) and the Arbitrage Pricing Theory (APT). This project will first examine and compare these two models theoretically fro m all aspects focusing on the strengths and weaknesses of each while taking into consideration past empirical work. In addition, this project will compare the empirical performance of the CAPM and the APT, specifically the Fama-French Thre e Factor Model, in predicting stock returns using stocks on the Dow Jones Indust rial Average. Using traditional measures such as the adjusted R-Squared, t-stat istic, and Wald test, no model was found to be superior to the other. As a resu lt, the Hansen-Jagannathan Distance test was used as a second resort. This test shows that the CAPM is actually superior to the APT. Chapter I will introduce both models and their implications. Chapter II and III will focus on the CAPM and APT respectively describing all their aspects includ ing evolution, strengths, weaknesses and past empirical applications. Chapter I V will comprise of an empirical study comparing both models to see which one doe s a better job in predicting equity returns. Chapter V will conclude the projec t with certain policy implications.

Diploma Thesis from the year 1996 in the subject Business economics - Banking, Stock Exchanges, Insurance, Accounting, grade: 1,3, European Business School - International University Schlo Reichartshausen Oestrich-Winkel, 160 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: A "few surprises" could be the trivial answer of the Arbitrage Pricing Theory if asked for the major determinants of stock returns. The APT was developed as a traceable framework of the main principles of capital asset pricing in financial markets. It investigates the causes underlying one of the most important fields in financial economics, namely the relationship between risk and return. The APT provides a thorough understanding of the nature and origins of risk inherent in financial assets and how capital markets reward an investor for bearing risk. Its fundamental intuition is the absence of arbitrage which is, indeed, central to finance and which has been used in virtually all areas of financial study. Since its introduction two decades ago, the APT has been subject to extensive theoretical as well as empirical research. By now, the arbitrage theory is well established in both respects and has enlightened our perception of capital markets. This paper aims to present the APT as an appropriate instrument of capital asset pricing and to link its principles to the valuation of risky income streams. The objective is also to provide an overview of the state of art of APT in the context of alternative capital market theories. For this purpose, Section 2 describes the basic concepts of the traditional asset pricing model, the CAPM, and indicates differences to arbitrage theory. Section 3 constitutes the main part of this paper introducing a derivation of the APT. Emphasis is laid on principles rather than on rigorous proof. The intuition of the pricing formula and its consistency with the state space preference theory are discussed. Important contributions to the APT are classified and br

This handbook in two parts covers key topics of the theory of financial decision making. Some of the papers discuss real applications or case studies as well. There are a number of new papers that have never been published before especially in Part II.Part I is concerned with Decision Making Under Uncertainty. This includes subsections on Arbitrage, Utility Theory, Risk Aversion and Static Portfolio Theory, and Stochastic Dominance. Part II is concerned with Dynamic Modeling that is the transition for static decision making to multiperiod decision making. The analysis starts with Risk Measures and then discusses Dynamic Portfolio Theory, Tactical Asset Allocation and Asset-Liability Management Using Utility and Goal Based Consumption-Investment Decision Models.A comprehensive set of problems both computational and review and mind expanding with many unsolved problems are in an accompanying problems book. The handbook plus the book of problems form a very strong set of materials for PhD and Masters courses both as the main or as supplementary text in finance theory, financial decision making and portfolio theory. For researchers, it is a valuable resource being an up to date treatment of topics in the classic books on these topics by Johnathan Ingersoll in 1988, and William Ziemba and Raymond Vickson in 1975 (updated 2 nd edition published in 2006).

Research Paper (undergraduate) from the year 2008 in the subject Business economics - Banking, Stock Exchanges, Insurance, Accounting, grade: 1,3, University of Cooperative Education, language: English, abstract: The objective of this paper is to give an overview of the most important movements of the complex area of asset pricing. This will be tried by logically structuring and building up the topic from its origins, the Capital Asset Pricing Model, and then over its main points of critique, in order to arrive at the different options developed by financial science that try to resolve those problematic aspects. Due to the complexity of this subject and the limited scope of this paper, obviously it will not be possible to discuss each model or movement in depth. Coherently, the aim is to point out the main thoughts of each aspect discussed. For further information, especially concerning the deeper mathematical backgrounds and derivations of the models, the author would like to refer the reader to the books mentioned in this paper. Many of those works, finance journal publications and the literature on asset pricing in general, set their focus on different parts of this paper, which again underlines the complexity in terms of scientific scope and intellectual and mathematical intricacy of this topic.

The arbitrage pricing theory (APT) has been proposed as an alternative to the capital asset pricing model (CAPM). This paper uses principal components analysis to estimate the factors that influence stock returns. Analysis of the Indian stock market using monthly and weekly returns for 1991-2002 shows that APT with multiple factors provides a better indication of asset risk and estimates of required rate of return than CAPM which uses beta as the single measure of risk.