The variance of returns attributable to the marketwide factor is called the systematic risk of the security. This component of variance equals β2i σ2m and is higher when firm i’s beta coefficient is higher. “Cyclical” firms have greater sensitivity to the market (higher betas)and therefore have greater systematic risk. The firm-specific component of return variance is σ2(ei).Because the index model assumes that firm-specific surprises are mutually uncorrelated, the only source of covariance between any pair of securities is their common dependence on the market return. Therefore, the covariance between two firms’ returns depends on the sensitivity of each to the market, as measured by their betas: