A model that attempts to describe the relationship between the
risk and the
expected return on an
investment that is used to determine an investment's appropriate
price. The assumption behind the CAPM is that
money has two
values: a
time value and a risk value. Thus, any risky
asset or investment must compensate the
investor for both the time his/her money is tied up in the investment and the investment's relative riskiness. This compensation must be in addition to the
risk-free rate of return. There are a number of variations on the CAPM, notably the
multifactor CAPM and the
two-factor model. The CAPM is calculated according to the following formula:
ra = rf +
Betaa(rm - rf)
where:
ra is the asset price,
rf is the risk-free rate of return,
Betaa is the
risk premium, and
rm is the
market rate of return.