Fight Finance

Question 101  payout policy, no explanation

An established mining firm announces that it expects large losses over the following year due to flooding which has temporarily stalled production at its mines. Which statement(s) are correct?

(i) If the firm adheres to a full dividend payout policy it will not pay any dividends over the following year.

(ii) If the firm wants to signal that the loss is temporary it will maintain the same level of dividends. It can do this so long as it has enough retained profits.

(iii) By law, the firm will be unable to pay a dividend over the following year because it cannot pay a dividend when it makes a loss.

Select the most correct response:

(a) Only (i) is true.

(b) Only (ii) is true.

(c) Only (iii) is true.

(d) Only (i) and (ii) is true.

(e) All statements (i), (ii) and (iii) are true.

Question 135  credit card, APR, no explanation

Your credit card shows a $600 debt liability. The interest rate is 24% pa, payable monthly. You can't pay any of the debt off, except in 6 months when it's your birthday and you'll receive $50 which you'll use to pay off the credit card. If that is your only repayment, how much will the credit card debt liability be one year from now?

(a) $688.32

(b) $704.64

(c) $710.95

(d) $760.95

(e) $817.25

Question 301  leverage, capital structure, real estate

Your friend just bought a house for $1,000,000. He financed it using a $900,000 mortgage loan and a deposit of $100,000.

In the context of residential housing and mortgages, the 'equity' or 'net wealth' tied up in a house is the value of the house less the value of the mortgage loan. Assuming that your friend's only asset is his house, his net wealth is $100,000.

If house prices suddenly fall by 15%, what would be your friend's percentage change in net wealth?

Assume that:

• No income (rent) was received from the house during the short time over which house prices fell.
• Your friend will not declare bankruptcy, he will always pay off his debts.

(a) -1,000%

(b) -150%

(c) -100%

(d) -15%

(e) -10%

Question 311  foreign exchange rate

When someone says that they're "buying American dollars" (USD), what type of asset are they probably buying? They're probably buying:

(a) Short term debt denominated in USD, for example lending to a US bank as a USD deposit.

(b) Long term debt denominated in USD, for example lending to a US company by buying their USD bonds.

(c) Shares denominated in USD, for example buying shares in Coca-Cola which is listed on the NYSE.

(d) Real estate denominated in USD, for example buying an apartment in Chicago.

(e) Commodities with USD, for example buying gold, wheat, or coal.

Question 400  option, no explanation

A European put option will mature in ##T## years with a strike price of ##K## dollars. The underlying asset has a price of ##S## dollars.

What is an expression for the payoff at maturity ##(f_T)## in dollars from owning (being long) the put option?

(a) ##\max(S_T - K, 0)##.

(b) ##\max(S_T - K, K)##.

(c) ##\max(K-S_T, 0)##.

(d) ##\max(K-S_T, K)##.

(e) ##\min(K-S_T, 0)##.

Question 640  option, future, no explanation

Which one of the below option and futures contracts gives the possibility of potentially unlimited gains?

(a) Long call contracts.

(b) Short call contracts.

(c) Long put contracts.

(d) Short put contracts.

(e) Short future contracts.

Question 687  option, no explanation

Which of the following statements about call options is NOT correct?

(a) Buyers of call options are required to pay an initial margin at the start.

(b) Call options are a zero-sum game in the sense that the winner gains at the expense of the loser.

(c) Buyers of call options have to pay the option price at the start.

(d) Buyers of call options do not care about the credit risk of the original call option seller since the contract is novated by the exchange.

(e) Speculators who sell call options hope that the underlying asset price falls.

Question 728  inflation, real and nominal returns and cash flows, income and capital returns, no explanation

Which of the following statements about gold is NOT correct? Assume that the gold price increases by inflation. Gold has a:

(a) Nil income cash flow.

(b) Real total return of zero.

(c) Real capital return equal to the inflation rate.

(d) Real income return of zero.

(e) Nominal income return of zero.

Question 768  accounting terminology, book and market values, no explanation

Accountants and finance professionals have lots of names for the same things which can be quite confusing.

Which of the following groups of items are NOT synonyms?

(a) Revenue, sales, turn over.

(b) Paid up capital, contributed equity.

(c) Shares, stock, equity.

(d) Net income, earnings, net profit after tax, the bottom line.

(e) Market capitalisation of equity, book value of equity.

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.