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Importance of Portfolio Diversification

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Submitted By thornhillroger
Words 929
Pages 4
Theory Investment/Portfolio
M3: Assignment 1 Discussion
B6201-P
Roger Thornhill
What makes for good diversification in a portfolio investment? How do you achieve diversification? Portfolio diversification is a necessity for risk minimized investing. Things that can happen to an undiversified investor were seen through the 401k vested employees of Enron before and after their scandal. During the 1990’s and early 2000’s before it was discovered that Enron’s accounting practices where fraudulent, they encouraged their employees to invest in their 401k program that consisted of 100% Enron stock. At that time, Enron’s stock was growing at an astronomical rate. There were no apparent devaluation signs and Enron investors thought they had found their future nest egg. Thousands of employees saw the opportunity and dumped frequent payments and, at times, their full retirement savings into Enron stock and Enron’s 100% stock 401k plan. They should have diversified. By solely investing in Enron stock, 100% of the unsystematic risk remained with Enron’s success or failure. Although, at the time, the risk associated with Enron’s failure was at a minimum, the fundamental idea that no stock is risk free, even the best of them, was a prevailing factor. When Enron’s scandal went public in 2001, the stock plummeted from as high as $90 to $0.12 per share and never recovered. Both 100% stock portfolios and 401k investment plans became worthless – investors and employees lost billions. Portfolio diversification could have helped the individuals who were completely invested in Enron’s stock. Portfolio diversification essentially spreads the unsystematic risks associated with securities amongst a broad variety of many investments. A great example of unsystematic risk is seen above with Enron and their failure due to fraudulent business practices. These types of

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