Can an investor receive a higher expected return for the same

level of systematic risk?

Yes, given the same level of systematic risk, an investor can expect a higher
expected return. While systemic risk is extremely high and impossible to
completely eliminate, investors can reduce it by diversifying their portfolios
among asset types such as fixed income, cash, and real estate, each of which will
react to a market event differently. A rise in interest rates, for example, will
improve the value of some new-issue bonds while lowering the value of some
company stocks. As a result, ensuring that a portfolio has a sufficient number of
income-generating assets can help to mitigate the loss of value in some stocks.