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EXPERIMENT 01 / MARKET & TAIL RISK

When diversification fails

Stress the assumptions behind your portfolio. See what happens to losses when volatility rises and assets move together.

Sculptural columns on a shared flexible base, illustrating shared vulnerability.
Concept illustrationSeparate columns share one flexible base. Different holdings can still depend on the same forces.

Start with the question

Can two different investments fail together?

Follow three changes, then test your own assumptions.

Explore the settings

Chapter 1 of 3

Start with a shared exposure

A portfolio can hold different industries and still be exposed to the same market. Begin with the simulated baseline calibrated to historical returns.

What to watch

Read the daily loss distribution. The right-hand tail contains the worst losses.

What stays fixed?

A 60% technology / 40% defensive-industry equity portfolio, daily horizon, 97.5% confidence, and the same simulation seed. Both sleeves are equities; this is not a stock–bond portfolio.

The terms, in plain language
Correlation
How closely two investments move together.
VaR
A loss threshold at the selected confidence level; larger losses remain possible.
Expected Shortfall (ES)
The average loss in the tail beyond that threshold.
Saved evidence · Chapter 1

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Your turn

Explore the settings.

Change one assumption at a time. Run a calculation to update the evidence, then inspect or download the result.

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