Friday, 15 March 2013

Systematic and Unsystematic Risk

Systematic and Unsystematic Risk
What is the difference between systematic and unsystematic risk? How do these two types of risk affect the judgment of investors? Read to find out all about it...
Every endeavor comes with a certain degree of risk. Success is attained by those, who can successfully negotiate this risk, buoyed by a fractional amount of luck. It is simply impossible to bring all the variables under our control as they are innumerable. If you think of stock investing or any other securities investment, there are various kinds of risks, that you need to think about. Two of the prime types are systematic and unsystematic risk.

What does 'risk' mean? Can it be quantified? What we talk about here is economic risk. Risk is created by the odds stacked against the performance of company stocks that you have invested in. It certainly can be quantified through research. Risk management is the prime business of investment managers. If you really think about it, stock exchange working has similarities with betting business. You are betting on the performance of companies by buying their stock. Every investment in stocks, bonds and other securities that you make is a gamble.

Sometimes the gamble pays off and sometimes it doesn't; depending on what your investment strategy is. So it is the business of every stock investor to study the risk involved in his endeavors. Let us have a look at two prime types of risk that you absolutely have to consider while investing in stocks.

Definition

Every stock market is connected with the local economy, which in turn is affected by its connection with the global economy.

Systematic risk arises due to the changes in local and global macroeconomic parameters which include economic policy decisions made by governments, decisions of central banks that affect the lending interest rates and even waves of economic recession. These are some of the systematic risk examples. They arise due to the inherent dynamic nature of an economy and the flow of resources around the world.

Unsystematic risk is connected with specific sectors and arises due to problems that are endemic to a particular company that you are invested in.

Some of the unsystematic risk examples are labor strikes, drop in sales of a company or any other problem which arises due to human level error in judgment at the managerial level, that affects your stock or securities investment.

Difference Between Systematic Risk and Unsystematic Risk

Systematic risk affects the entire market as a whole, while unsystematic risk may affect a certain company or sector. Therefore, the latter is avoidable, while the former isn't.

One can diversify an investment portfolio to eliminate the endemic risk that plagues a certain sector. However, one cannot eliminate systematic risk as its effects sweep the entire economy, as well as the market. To really anticipate systematic risk, one needs to study the dynamics of an economy and the effects of policy decisions quite deeply. While this may not help you entirely eliminate systematic risk, it may help you brace for it.

One can keep unsystematic risk to a minimum with thorough stock research and spreading out investment over diverse sectors, but its unsystematic counterpart, simply cannot be eliminated entirely. It cannot be taken out of the equation entirely and therefore, it should never be ignored. Make your investments smartly, 

No comments:

Post a Comment