Level I Portfolio Construction practice questions

Cognitive errors result from statistical, information-processing, or memory blind spots and faulty reasoning. Because they are rooted in logic gaps, they are often easier to mitigate or correct with basic financial education, better data, and objective processing tools. Emotional biases, on the other hand, stem from deep-seated feelings, intuition, or psychological impulses, making them much harder to overcome, often requiring an advisor to adapt to the bias rather than correct it.

Option A is incorrect because it completely reverses the definitions.

Option C is incorrect because both types of biases can significantly damage portfolio returns.

The Security Market Line (SML) graphs the required or expected return of an asset as a function of its systematic risk, measured by beta ($\beta$). Under the CAPM framework, diversifiable or unsystematic risk is not rewarded with a risk premium because it can be eliminated through proper portfolio diversification.

Option A is incorrect because total risk (measured by standard deviation, $\sigma$) is the risk metric used for the Capital Market Line (CML), not the SML.

Option C is incorrect because unsystematic risk is completely unpriced by the market mechanism.

Property and casualty (P&C) insurance companies protect against unpredictable claims (e.g., natural disasters, accidents). Because their liabilities are short-term and highly uncertain in timing and magnitude, they maintain a much higher liquidity requirement compared to life insurance companies, whose liabilities are longer-term and highly predictable based on actuarial life tables.

Option A is incorrect because P&C companies have a significantly shorter time horizon than life insurance companies.

Option C is incorrect because P&C claims are heavily impacted by short-term claims inflation (e.g., rising medical costs or auto repair costs), meaning their sensitivity to inflation is high, not low.

The planning step involves analyzing the investor's specific constraints and objectives, drafting the formal Investment Policy Statement (IPS), and formulating long-term capital market expectations for risk and return across asset classes.

Option A is wrong because evaluating performance via attribution analysis is a core component of the feedback step.

Option C is wrong because the actual execution of transactions to build the initial portfolio is the primary focus of the execution step.

Statement 2 is entirely accurate because scenario analysis allows risk managers to simulate forward-looking hypothetical macro events without relying on past data presence. Statement 1 is wrong: historical VaR cannot map tail risks that did not manifest during the observation timeline. Statement 3 is wrong: parametric VaR using a normal distribution assumes symmetry and fails completely to model the highly skewed, non-linear option convexities.

An investor who prefers higher risk (higher standard deviation, $\sigma$) and a lower expected return, $E(R)$, is exhibiting risk-seeking behavior. Looking at the utility function $U = E(R) - \frac{1}{2} A \sigma^2$, for an increase in risk to increase total utility, the term $- \frac{1}{2} A \sigma^2$ must be positive. This occurs only when the risk aversion coefficient, $A$, is less than zero ($A < 0$).

Option A is incorrect because a risk aversion coefficient equal to zero ($A = 0$) describes a risk-neutral investor, who evaluates investments solely on expected return regardless of risk. Option C is incorrect because a risk aversion coefficient greater than zero ($A > 0$) describes a risk-averse investor, who requires higher expected returns to compensate for increased risk.

Anchoring bias is a cognitive information-processing error where an individual fixes onto an arbitrary initial value (the anchor, which is often the purchase price of $50) and fails to adjust their expectations adequately when new, objective data arrives (such as deteriorating business fundamentals).

Option B is incorrect because availability bias involves overestimating the probability of events based on how vividly or easily examples can be recalled.

Option C is incorrect because mental accounting involves treating money differently depending on its source or intended placement in separate 'mental buckets.'

The formula for calculating an asset's beta is defined as the covariance of the asset's returns with the market returns divided by the variance of the market portfolio:

If the numerator, $\text{Cov}(R_i, R_m)$, doubles while the denominator, $\sigma_m^2$, remains constant, the entire fraction doubles, meaning the beta coefficient will double.

Option B represents a misunderstanding of how covariance impacts systematic risk exposure.

Option C is incorrect because it treats the mathematical relationship between covariance and beta as an inverse function rather than a direct linear function.

Commercial banks accept short-term deposits and grant longer-term loans. Their proprietary investment portfolios must be highly liquid and short-duration to handle sudden deposit withdrawals and capital requirements. Thus, they have a short time horizon and high liquidity constraints.

Option B describes the profile of an endowment or foundation, which is the exact opposite of a bank's profile.

Option C is completely incorrect because banks are among the most heavily regulated financial institutions with strict capital and liquidity adequacy frameworks (e.g., Basel III regulations).

Step 1: Calculate initial asset class dollar positions:

Step 2: Calculate year-end values before rebalancing:

Step 3: Check the rebalancing trigger condition:

The deviation is $75.431\% - 70.0\% = 5.431\%$. Since $5.431\% > 5.0\%$, the rebalancing trigger is activated.

Step 4: Compute the target equity position and the required sale volume:

Option A multiplies the percentage point deviation directly by the historical baseline capital amount: $5.431\% \times \dollar 10,000,000 = \dollar 543,100$. Option C assumes that they only need to sell the amount corresponding to the corridor limit applied to the initial asset base: $5.0\% \times \dollar 10,000,000 = \dollar 500,000$.