True or False: Increasing the number of stocks in a portfolio reduces market risk.Consider two stock portfolios. Portfolio B consists of 20 different stocks from firms in different industries. Portfolio A consists of 10 different stocks, also from firms in different industries. The return on Portfolio B is likely to be volatile than that of Portfolio A.

A basic principle of investments is the creation of portfolios (or portfolios) for diversification purposes. At any given time, investors simultaneously hold a set of assets that make up their investment portfolio. A basic principle in finance is that an investor should not place all of his resources in a single asset or in a relatively small number of assets, but in a large number of investment instruments. In this way, the possible bad results in certain assets would be offset by the good results of others. Diversification allows the investor to lower the risk of his portfolio without sacrificing returns or, alternatively, increase the return on his portfolio without increasing his risk. Of course, diversification does not guarantee profits under any circumstances, but it does help to dampen the variability of returns on individual assets.