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Weight for a riskless mix of two opposite assets

Question

Asset 1 has expected return 4%4\% and variance 0.150.15; asset 2 has expected return 2%2\% and variance 0.040.04; their returns have correlation −1-1. You form a portfolio with weights w1w_1 and w2w_2, w1+w2=1w_1+w_2=1, so that it has zero variance. Find w1w_1 to two decimals.

Short answer

w1≈0.34w_1\approx0.34. With ρ=−1\rho=-1 the portfolio volatility is ∣w1σ1−w2σ2∣|w_1\sigma_1-w_2\sigma_2|, which vanishes when w1=σ2σ1+σ2=0.20.387+0.2≈0.34w_1=\frac{\sigma_2}{\sigma_1+\sigma_2}=\frac{0.2}{0.387+0.2}\approx0.34. Expected returns play no role.

Adapted from QuantQuestions.io; question and answer rewritten by SelfMadeQuant.com.

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