Week 3

CAPM and APT

From portfolio choice to asset pricing: the Capital Asset Pricing Model, the Security Market Line, and Arbitrage Pricing Theory — and how they hold up in practice.

What we cover

  • Recap: what portfolio theory told us — and what it left unanswered
  • The Capital Asset Pricing Model: from diversification to a theory of expected returns
  • The Security Market Line: beta as the price of systematic risk
  • CAPM vs. APT: one factor or many?
  • In practice: what these models are actually used for

Put it to work

This week’s lab, PC Lab 2, takes these models to the data.

Stuck, or curious about something here? Ask on the course forum →