Blair & Rosen, Inc. (B&R) is a brokerage firm that specializes in investment portfolios designed to meet the specific risk tolerances of its clients. A client who contacted B&R this past week has a maximum of $50,000 to invest. B&R’s investment advisor decides to recommend a portfolio consisting of two investment funds: an Internet fund and a Blue Chip fund. The Internet fund has a projected annual return of 12 percent, and the Blue Chip fund has a projected annual return of 9 percent. The investment advisor requires that at most $35,000 of the client’s funds should be invested in the Internet fund. B&R services include a risk rating for each investment alternative. The Internet fund, which is the more risky of the two investment alternatives, has a risk rating of 6 per $1,000 invested. The Blue Chip fund has a risk rating of 4 per $1,000 invested. For example, if $10,000 is invested in each of the two investment funds, B&R’s risk rating for the portfolio would be 6(10) 1 4(10) 5 100. Finally, B&R developed a questionnaire to measure each client’s risk tolerance. Based on the responses, each client is classified as a conservative, moderate, or aggressive investor. Suppose that the questionnaire results classified the currentclient as a moderate investor. B&R recommends that a client who is a moderate investor limit his or her portfolio to a maximum risk rating of 240.
a. Formulate a linear programming model to find the best investment strategy for this client.
b. Build a spreadsheet model and solve the problem using Solver. What is the recommended investment portfolio for this client? What is the annual return for the portfolio?
