hi there

quick question about systematic risk. ive been reading all over the place that such risk cannot be eliminated by diversifying, but is this always true? as far as i know systematic risk is the risk that affects the whole market, such as the risk of a stock crash etc. what happens when an investor moves from investing purely in small stocks to investing in small stocks, large stocks, long-term bonds and intermediate-term bonds? surely a market-wide factor such as a change in interest rates will not affect all of these asset classes in the same way. there will always be a level of systematic risk, but isnt some systematic risk eliminated in this way?

for example if small stocks were affected a lot more than large stocks by a certasin market event, diversifying would eliminate some of the systematic risk intrinsic to investing in small stocks. i suppose its the same as changing the level of systematic risk. so basically, its possible to reduce systematic risk but not eliminate it totally? any feedback would be appreciated, cheers