Calculate the average return and standard deviations.

For the project please do the following:
Please watch the following video if you haven’t already and review folder in SAKAI Project625_DueDec16th.

The video should help you with getting started on the project.In summary,

A. Choose your stocks that you would like to use. DO NOTE USE any of the securities that I went over in the video namely Amazon and Walmart. I would prefer you use stocks across sectors.
B. Download data (MAKE SURE your have CONSISTENT DATES FOR ALL)
READ INSTRUCTIONS IN PROJECT attached for frequency (daily) and span.
C. When you download the data, you will come up with a files in CSV format. SAVE the sheet as an EXCEL file default is csv.
D. DELETE ALL columns except for “Adj Close” column and LABEL it.
E. DO the same for ALL your stocks and and for SP 500 (MAKE SURE your have CONSISTENT DATES FOR ALL) SP 500 DATA can also be downloaded FROM FRED https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/SP500
F. Calculate the average return and standard deviations. OPTIONAL (I will not cut off point if you do not annualize): Although you are not required to, I would prefer if you “annualize” them. To “annualize” Daily returns, either simply multiply your daily returns by 250 or use the formula: Annual return equal [(Daily return+1)^250]-1 since we are assuming 250 trading days in a year. Our assumption again is there are approximately 250 trading days in a year.
https://www.fool.com/knowledge-center/how-to-convert-daily-returns-to-annual-returns.aspx
To convert daily standard deviation into your YEARLY, multiply daily standard deviation by the square root of 250
“Therefore, if the daily standard deviation is 1.1%, and if there are 250 trading days in a year, the annualized standard deviation is the daily standard deviation of 1.1% multiplied by the square root of 250 i.e. (1.1% x 15.8 = 18.1%)”
https://www.fool.com/knowledge-center/how-to-calculate-annualized-volatility.aspx
Again this is optional and if it gets confusing skip “annualizing”
2. Draw the graphs and the cross correlation matrix as I have illustrated in the video
3. Using the returns that you calculated above, calculate the portfolio rate of return using the weights that you wish or create an equal weighted portfolio (25% each).
Remember the formula is W1*R1+W2*R2+W3*R3…+Wn*Rn
4. Break the dataset are the instruction in the project and c ompare the returns of the individual securities and the portfolio during the entire period, pre COVID-19 and during COVID 19 periods.

5. Please review the hand out which shows you how to calculate the Betas (attached). Use the portfolio beta formula to calculate the date of the portfolios.
W1*Beta1+W2* Beta 2+W3* Beta 3…+Wn* Beta n