Yash Jain

The Balancing Act Between Risk and Returns

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Balancing act

The Balancing Act Between Risk and Returns Any smart investor would tell you that in taking the plunge with stocks, as with any dilemma in life, it is all about finding a sweet spot between going all out and keeping your powder dry. We at DailyTopStocks aren’t any different, and bring to you a definitive guide to adapting your objectives and mind-set to the growing set of things that a modern investor must contend with. What are the risks and what are the returns? The general consensus seems to be that high risk means high-reward, which is said to be the only upside to high risk investments. However, at times higher-risk investments can also become less risky over time, attracting more investors who then drive up the price. One important thing of note is that there is no promise of higher returns on risky investments, so the higher risk just tends to scare off potential investors, keeping the returns on a given investment low. Whether a riskier investment will actually generate higher returns is up to the individual investor to decide. Exactly how risk is assessed and the amount of expected returns change depending on the individual investor but investors tend to invest in higher-risk opportunities if they determine that doing so will generate higher returns. It creates a catch-22 situation. The takeaway is thathigher risk doesn’t necessarily mean higher returns, and only an expectation for an investment to provide returns shifts the investor’s inclination to take the plunge. High risk in itself isn’t, and shouldn’t, be the driving force behind whether the investor chooses to invest or not. When making a choice of investments, it therefore means that the risk should not be weighed up against the potential returns in order to justify taking them, but through techniques that we are about to discuss in the following sections. Diversification and the kind of risks it helps reduce You have probably come across this term being slapped across social media posts by a whole host of financial advisories, and it certainly has a ring to it that screams “security” and “risk aversion”. But why is this the case, and how so? The fact that no investment carries with it absolute certainty of good return and no risks means that companies try to bring in the term diversification to suggest less risk and more potential for higher returns. This is because of the fact that by investing across a variety of stocks, you can factor in the variation of the risks involved in each. How would that help? Well, a high risk in investment in one stock can simultaneously mean low risk across a whole bunch of other stocks. Some of them might even yield a good return, which mitigates the losses incurred and that is how diversification broadly works. Let us take a deeper dive into what we are looking at by considering an instance where a company haschosen to invest in two stocks. Should they change in value in ways that are the exactopposite, say, one falls in value by x percent, and the other rises by x percent as well, then amongst the two stocks, changes in value will consequently result in not only zero gain but also zero risk. The company in question is said to have diversified with the aim of reducing risk by finding investments that change in response to a variety of events, by different amounts and in completely opposite directions, and at different times. As a result of this, the company has reduced the possibility of losses incurred as opposed to dealing with the risk attached to investing in only onestock. Remember, the whole point of diversification is to mitigate the risks, while maintaining a healthy return. The question that now arises is why companies don’t invest in only the best stocks. If they diversify thei rinvestment portfolio by putting money into a variety of different assets, then do we, or the imaginary company, necessarily want to see any of them lose value, even if we know for a fact that they might? This where the concept of opportunity cost comes in. The opportunity cost is the cost of investing in a given entity, with respect to the opportunities lost in investing in some other stocks that we have chosen to not invest in, which held the potential of our investment but didn’t make the grade due to the fact that having put our eggs in one basket, we don’t hve room for further investments in them. With the opportunity cost in of an investment in mind, the aim should be to find the best stocks and after that, find investments that provide the highest potential returns but also with considerable risk of falling in value. Having dealt with the risk of some our investments falling in value, one thing to always keep in mind is that there are certain risks that no amount of diversification can eliminate. These risks are termed as systematic risks. An example can be a situation where a company or investor has understood the idea of diversification, and implemented it well across their portfolio, but then an economic recession occurs. How is one supposed to deal with such circumstances? Those are the only kinds of risks that are called systematic risks, and can’t be dealt with solely by diversifying – which outlines both the limitations and the effectiveness of diversification. Having touched upon the subject of systematic risks, we are also obliged to introduce the idea of specific risk, which is any kind of a risk attached to a given stock (or any investment) that has to do with its own properties. These are the types of risks that can be averted by diversifying. The Bottom Line There is always a trade-off between risk and return when it comes to stock investment. While higher risk stocks tend to offer higher returns, they are also more volatile and can result in losses. Lower risk stocks may not offer … Read more

Fundamental Components of Stock Valuation 

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<strong>Fundamental Components of Stock Valuation</strong> 

Fundamental Components of Stock Valuation  Eager to take your first step into investment in your favourite stocks but can’t make sense of their valuations? Do you feel hopelessly out of touch with the world of finance but can’t help feeling anxious about losing out on the potential of stock investment? Well, it’s your lucky day as this article is specifically for those who are itching to take the plunge but wouldn’t mind a few explanations coming their way, and in a language they can understand. It will serve to give you that boost you need to go on and be able to understand all the investment advice on the internet and elsewhere, and ultimately, make better financial decisions.  This is not to say that valuation of stocks is in any way shape or form, a simple deal. It involves sifting through a lot of information to isolate the helpful data from the immaterial clamour. Moreover, a finance expert ought to know about the most widely recognized stock valuation systems and the settings in which they are utilized, so as to determine what stocks are worth.   However, this is where we acknowledge the shortcomings for most people reading this post are. Knowledge of basic concepts like how to read financial statements of a company, such as income statements to understand profit margins, cash flow statements, and balance sheets to gauge the position of a company at any point in time are helpful in this regard, but may not be every person’s cup of tea. However, we’ll cut through all the theory to bring you 4 aspects that are undeniably the most vital in evaluating a stock’s worth – with the aid of the least amount of finance jargon possible.  Before we dive into what those four factors are, we must be aware of a couple of terminologies which will help us not have to revisit them each time we come to a new concept. These are:  So without any further introductions, let us bring to you what we are talking about.  The first important factor to consider here is the ratio of the company’s stock price and the book value per stock. This can be calculated by dividing the market value of the stock, let’s call it P, which is readily available on most stock trading websites and platforms, by the value obtained by dividing the book value by the total number of outstanding shares.  The book value can be found by going through a company’s balance sheet, which can also be dug up relatively easily on the internet. It is usually present in the company website within their financial information that has been made public. The amount of outstanding shares may also be found here. Dividing the former with the latter gives us the value, say B, which can be the denominator in the ratio we are talking about.  Hence, the Price-to-Book ratio = P/B, where   P = the market price of each share, and B = book value/number of outstanding shares  How this ratio is helpful:  A high Price-to-Book ratio means that a company’s stock is likely overvalued and in the same way, that which is low could mean the stock is undervalued. Should you be able to calculate this ratio for a number of companies in a given sector or industry, comparing these values as opposed to listening to the perceived value of these stocks thrown around in general stock-trading conversations can give a much better insight into how companies in a given industry are performing with regard to one another, and which ones to invest in. It is important to note that these numbers should always be compared with those of companies of the same industry for a more accurate measure.  Companies with lower values or undervalued stocks are generally the way to go as they may signify a better potential for future returns, once their true values are realised.   The second important metric we will take a look at is the Price-to-Earnings ratio. As the name suggests, the numerator of this ratio is the same as the value of P as discussed above, i.e. the market value of each stock, but the difference lies in the earnings aspect.  Instead of considering the book value when going through the balance sheet of a company, this time we will consider the profit and loss statement, or the income statement of the company to find the profit margin. Dividing this team with the number of shares is the value we will use to divide the market value of each share with.  Let us assign the letter E for the denominator of the ratio we want to looking at. Therefore, E = profit made/number of outstanding shares  Thus, the Profit-to-Earnings ratio = P/E  How this ratio is helpful:  This ratio is quite important, in fact, even more so than the P/B ratio, as a desired number here dictates whether the company is actually making money, which is a pretty good indicator of whether the stock prices will stay up, if they aren’t already. There are also places where the ‘E’ is replaced with projected earnings instead of recorded earnings from the past, which could possibly be a better indicator of how the company’s shares are going to be valued per unit of profit on one share, but those numbers are not as objective as recorded earnings from the past.  A high P/E value means that the company is expected to earn more than it is by investors, but a low value could be vital to look at as it could mean the company is doing well in terms of earnings but is undervalued, which is something to watch out for when comparing stocks. As with the previous factor (P/B), comparisons of ratios with those of only similar companies in the same industries need to be made to reach a meaningful conclusion.  If you have managed to calculate the above metrics, the PEG ratio should be simple enough to understand … Read more