Fight Finance

Question 100  market efficiency, technical analysis, joint hypothesis problem

A company selling charting and technical analysis software claims that independent academic studies have shown that its software makes significantly positive abnormal returns. Assuming the claim is true, which statement(s) are correct?

(I) Weak form market efficiency is broken.

(II) Semi-strong form market efficiency is broken.

(III) Strong form market efficiency is broken.

(IV) The asset pricing model used to measure the abnormal returns (such as the CAPM) had mis-specification error so the returns may not be abnormal but rather fair for the level of risk.

Select the most correct response:

(a) Only III is true.

(b) Only II and III are true.

(c) Only I, II and III are true.

(d) Only IV is true.

(e) Either I, II and III are true, or IV is true, or they are all true.

Question 138  bond pricing, premium par and discount bonds

Bonds A and B are issued by the same Australian company. Both bonds yield 7% pa, and they have the same face value ($100), maturity, seniority, and payment frequency.

The only difference is that bond A pays coupons of 10% pa and bond B pays coupons of 5% pa. Which of the following statements is true about the bonds' prices?

(a) The prices of bonds A and B will be more than $100.

(b) The prices of bonds A and B will be less than $100.

(c) Bond A will have a price more than $100, and bond B will have a price less than $100.

(d) Bond A will have a price less than $100, and bond B will have a price more than $100.

(e) Bonds A and B will both have a price of $100.

Question 237  WACC, Miller and Modigliani, interest tax shield

Which of the following discount rates should be the highest for a levered company? Ignore the costs of financial distress.

(a) Cost of debt (##r_\text{D}##).

(b) Unlevered cost of equity (##r_\text{E, U}##).

(c) Levered cost of equity (##r_\text{E, L}##).

(d) Levered before-tax WACC (##r_\text{V, LxITS}##).

(e) Levered after-tax WACC (##r_\text{V, LwITS}##).

Question 394  real option, option

According to option theory, it's rational for students to submit their assignments as or as possible?

Question 419  capital budgeting, NPV, interest tax shield, WACC, CFFA, CAPM, no explanation

Project Data
Project life	1 year
Initial investment in equipment	$6m
Depreciation of equipment per year	$6m
Expected sale price of equipment at end of project	0
Unit sales per year	9m
Sale price per unit	$8
Variable cost per unit	$6
Fixed costs per year, paid at the end of each year	$1m
Interest expense in first year (at t=1)	$0.53m
Tax rate	30%
Government treasury bond yield	5%
Bank loan debt yield	6%
Market portfolio return	10%
Covariance of levered equity returns with market	0.08
Variance of market portfolio returns	0.16
Firm's and project's debt-to-assets ratio	50%

Notes

1. Due to the project, current assets will increase by $5m now (t=0) and fall by $5m at the end (t=1). Current liabilities will not be affected.

Assumptions

• The debt-to-assets ratio will be kept constant throughout the life of the project. The amount of interest expense at the end of each period has been correctly calculated to maintain this constant debt-to-equity ratio.
• Millions are represented by 'm'.
• All cash flows occur at the start or end of the year as appropriate, not in the middle or throughout the year.
• All rates and cash flows are real. The inflation rate is 2% pa.
• All rates are given as effective annual rates.
• The 50% capital gains tax discount is not available since the project is undertaken by a firm, not an individual.

What is the net present value (NPV) of the project?

(a) $7.33k

(b) $7.299k

(c) $6.946k

(d) $6.729k

(e) $6.667k

Question 452  limited liability, expected and historical returns

What is the lowest and highest expected share price and expected return from owning shares in a company over a finite period of time?

Let the current share price be ##p_0##, the expected future share price be ##p_1##, the expected future dividend be ##d_1## and the expected return be ##r##. Define the expected return as:

##r=\dfrac{p_1-p_0+d_1}{p_0} ##

The answer choices are stated using inequalities. As an example, the first answer choice "(a) ##0≤p<∞## and ##0≤r< 1##", states that the share price must be larger than or equal to zero and less than positive infinity, and that the return must be larger than or equal to zero and less than one.

(a) ##0≤p<∞## and ##0≤r< 1##

(b) ##0≤p<∞## and ##-1≤r< ∞##

(c) ##0≤p<∞## and ##0≤r< ∞##

(d) ##0≤p<∞## and ##-∞≤r< ∞##

(e) ##-∞<p<∞## and ##-∞<r< ∞##

Question 527  income and capital returns

Total cash flows can be broken into income and capital cash flows.

What is the name given to the cash flow generated from selling shares at a higher price than they were bought?

(a) Dividends.

(b) Rent.

(c) Coupons.

(d) Loan payments.

(e) Capital gains.

Question 657  systematic and idiosyncratic risk, CAPM, no explanation

A stock's required total return will decrease when its:

(a) Systematic risk increases.

(b) Idiosyncratic risk increases.

(c) Total risk increases.

(d) Systematic risk decreases.

(e) Idiosyncratic risk decreases.

Question 689  future, hedging

An equity index fund manager controls a USD1 billion diversified equity portfolio with a beta of 1.3. The equity manager fears that a global recession will begin in the next year, causing equity prices to tumble. The market does not think that this will happen. If the fund manager wishes to reduce her portfolio beta to 0.5, how many S&P500 futures should she sell?

The US market equity index is the S&P500. One year CME futures on the S&P500 currently trade at 2,062 points and the spot price is 2,091 points. Each point is worth $250. How many one year S&P500 futures contracts should the fund manager sell?

(a) 970

(b) 1,530

(c) 1,552

(d) 2,487

(e) 2,522

Question 779  mean and median returns, return distribution, arithmetic and geometric averages, continuously compounding rate

Fred owns some BHP shares. He has calculated BHP’s monthly returns for each month in the past 30 years using this formula:

###r_\text{t monthly}=\ln⁡ \left( \dfrac{P_t}{P_{t-1}} \right)###

He then took the arithmetic average and found it to be 0.8% per month using this formula:

###\bar{r}_\text{monthly}= \dfrac{ \displaystyle\sum\limits_{t=1}^T{\left( r_\text{t monthly} \right)} }{T} =0.008=0.8\% \text{ per month}###

He also found the standard deviation of these monthly returns which was 15% per month:

###\sigma_\text{monthly} = \dfrac{ \displaystyle\sum\limits_{t=1}^T{\left( \left( r_\text{t monthly} - \bar{r}_\text{monthly} \right)^2 \right)} }{T} =0.15=15\%\text{ per month}###

Assume that the past historical average return is the true population average of future expected returns and the stock's returns calculated above ##(r_\text{t monthly})## are normally distributed. Which of the below statements about Fred’s BHP shares is NOT correct?

(a) The returns ##r_\text{t monthly}## are continuously compounded monthly returns.

(b) The mean, median and mode of the continuously compounded annual return is expected to equal 0.8% per month.

(c) The annualised average continuously compounded return is ##\bar{r}_\text{cc annual}=12×0.008=0.096=9.6\%\text{ pa}##. The annualised standard deviation is ##\sigma_\text{annual} = \sqrt{12}×0.15=0.519615242 = 52\%\text{ pa}##.

(d) If the current price of the BHP shares is $20, they're expected to have a median value of $52.2339 ##(= 20×e^{0.008×12×10})## in 10 years.

(e) If the current price of the BHP shares is $20, they're expected to have a mean value of $13.5411 ##(= 20×e^{(0.008 - 0.15^2/2)×12×10})## in 10 years.