ABS risk-return profile

Since this topic isn’t really covered in depth in the CFA curriculum (up to Level 2 at least), I want to ask you how the risk-reward profile of an asset-backed security is calculated.For a minute, let’s forget about the tranches. Would the return of the security be simply the weighted return of the underlying assets? And similarly, would the standard deviation of this product be calculated as if it were a multi-asset portfolio?

I wish to improve my understanding of these securities without getting drawn too deeply into the mathematics of them (perhaps an impossible task).

Thanks in advance!