This document discusses sources of investment returns and how to measure risk and returns. It provides the following key points:
- Investments provide two basic types of returns: income returns from cash flows and returns from changes in the investment's price or value over time.
- Total return on an investment considers both income received and capital gains/losses. Various measures can quantify returns, including arithmetic mean, geometric mean, and expected rates of return.
- Risk refers to the uncertainty of investment returns and is measured by the variability of possible outcomes. The total risk of an investment includes systematic and unsystematic components. Systematic risk cannot be eliminated by diversification, while unsystematic risk can be reduced through diversification