Capital asset pricing model Created 2026-10-06 Updated 2026-10-14
The expected excess return obeys in the mean-variance market model. The beta of an asset is a covariance-to-market-variance ratio.
The capital asset pricing model gives
Thus it has the same affine relation between expected returns and a single systematic exposure. When the factor is the market portfolio's excess return, the loadings are the beta of an asset, , and . More generally, for a nondegenerate exact one-factor model and a market portfolio with loading , , and the pricing relation can be rewritten using that exposure.
The interpretations and assumptions differ. The CAPM is an equilibrium relation obtained with a mean-variance optimization framework, common beliefs, and suitable borrowing/lending and market-clearing assumptions. Arbitrage pricing theory uses absence of arbitrage, factor structure, and in realistic models diversification; it does not identify a generic factor with the market portfolio. Moreover the CAPM permits asset-specific risk, whereas the exact model in part (a) has no residual risk. The two formulas coincide for a suitable market factor, but no-arbitrage factor pricing by itself does not establish the CAPM's equilibrium assumptions.
Let initial wealth be and let be the number of units held of risky asset ; the bank investment is . Put . Terminal wealth is normal, with mean and variance . The expectation of the exponential utility is
For and positive definite covariance matrix , maximizing this is equivalent to maximizing the certainty equivalent . Thus the optimal investment is
All investors have proportional risky holdings. A market portfolio can therefore be represented by , with any positive scalar multiple giving the same return. Suppose its initial value is positive and . Set . For returns and ,
The beta of an asset is its covariance with the market return divided by the market variance. Consequently
This is the capital asset pricing model. Since , dividing the excess-return identity by gives the Sharpe ratio identity
These ratio statements require nonzero variances and nonzero initial portfolio value. If is singular and is in its range, replace by its pseudoinverse; any kernel holding can be added to an optimizer. If has a component in the kernel, it gives a deterministic excess gain that can be scaled without bound, so there is no finite optimal portfolio. If , there is no distinguished risky market portfolio and its beta ratios are undefined.