Question 24 implicit interest rate in wholesale credit, effective rate
A bathroom and plumbing supplies shop offers credit to its customers. Customers are given 60 days to pay for their goods, but if they pay within 7 days they will get a 2% discount.
What is the effective interest rate implicit in the discount being offered? Assume 365 days in a year and that all customers pay on either the 7th day or the 60th day. All rates given in this question are effective annual rates.
Suppose that the US government recently announced that subsidies for fresh milk producers will be gradually phased out over the next year. Newspapers say that there are expectations of a 40% increase in the spot price of fresh milk over the next year.
Option prices on fresh milk trading on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) reflect expectations of this 40% increase in spot prices over the next year. Similarly to the rest of the market, you believe that prices will rise by 40% over the next year.
What option trades are likely to be profitable, or to be more specific, result in a positive Net Present Value (NPV)?
Assume that:
- Only the spot price is expected to increase and there is no change in expected volatility or other variables that affect option prices.
- No taxes, transaction costs, information asymmetry, bid-ask spreads or other market frictions.
A stock is expected to pay its next dividend of $1 in one year. Future annual dividends are expected to grow by 2% pa. So the first dividend of $1 will be in one year, the year after that $1.02 (=1*(1+0.02)^1), and a year later $1.0404 (=1*(1+0.02)^2) and so on forever.
Its required total return is 10% pa. The total required return and growth rate of dividends are given as effective annual rates.
Calculate the current stock price.
The following cash flows are expected:
- 10 yearly payments of $80, with the first payment in 6.5 years from now (first payment at t=6.5).
- A single payment of $500 in 4 years and 3 months (t=4.25) from now.
What is the NPV of the cash flows if the discount rate is 10% given as an effective annual rate?
Question 606 foreign exchange rate, American and European terms
Which of the following FX quotes (current in October 2015) is given in American terms?
An equity index stands at 100 points and the one year equity futures price is 107.
The equity index is expected to have a dividend yield of 3% pa. Assume that investors are risk-neutral so their total required return on the shares is the same as the risk free Treasury bond yield which is 10% pa. Both are given as discrete effective annual rates.
Assuming that the equity index is fairly priced, an arbitrageur would recognise that the equity futures are:
A 12 month European-style call option with a strike price of $11 is written on a dividend paying stock currently trading at $10. The dividend is paid annually and the next dividend is expected to be $0.40, paid in 9 months. The risk-free interest rate is 5% pa continuously compounded and the standard deviation of the stock’s continuously compounded returns is 30 percentage points pa. The stock's continuously compounded returns are normally distributed. Using the Black-Scholes-Merton option valuation model, determine which of the following statements is NOT correct.
Question 905 market capitalisation of equity, PE ratio, payout ratio
The below graph shows the computer software company Microsoft's stock price (MSFT) at the market close on the NASDAQ on Friday 1 June 2018.
Based on the screenshot above, which of the following statements about MSFT is NOT correct? MSFT's:
A common phrase heard in financial markets is that ‘high risk investments deserve high returns’. To make this statement consistent with the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM), a high amount of what specific type of risk deserves a high return?
Investors deserve high returns when they buy assets with high: