The Capital Asset Pricing Model

The Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) revolutionized modern finance. Developed in the early 1960s by William Sharpe, Jack Treynor, John Lintner and Jan Mossin, the model provided the first coherent framework for relating the required return on an investment to the risk of that investment. This paper lays out the key ideas of the model, places its development in a historical context, and discusses its applications and enduring importance to the field of finance.