Fight Finance

Question 247  cross currency interest rate parity, no explanation

In the so called 'Swiss Loans Affair' of the 1980's, Australian banks offered loans denominated in Swiss Francs to Australian farmers at interest rates as low as 4% pa. This was far lower than interest rates on Australian Dollar loans which were above 10% due to very high inflation in Australia at the time.

In the late-1980's there was a large depreciation in the Australian Dollar. The Australian Dollar nearly halved in value against the Swiss Franc. Many Australian farmers went bankrupt since they couldn't afford the interest payments on the Swiss Franc loans because the Australian Dollar value of those payments nearly doubled. The farmers accused the banks of promoting Swiss Franc loans without making them aware of the risks.

What fundamental principal of finance did the Australian farmers (and the bankers) fail to understand?

(a) Home-made leverage.

(b) Diversification.

(c) Cross-currency interest rate parity.

(d) Time value of money.

(e) The undiversifiable nature of systematic risk.

Question 336  forward foreign exchange rate, no explanation

The Australian cash rate is expected to be 6% pa while the US federal funds rate is expected to be 4% pa over the next 3 years, both given as effective annual rates. The current exchange rate is 0.80 AUD per USD.

What is the implied 3 year forward foreign exchange rate?

(a) 1.180572 AUD per USD

(b) 0.848966 AUD per USD

(c) 0.847047 AUD per USD

(d) 0.755566 AUD per USD

(e) 0.752954 AUD per USD

Question 370  capital budgeting, NPV, interest tax shield, WACC, CFFA

Project Data
Project life	2 yrs
Initial investment in equipment	$600k
Depreciation of equipment per year	$250k
Expected sale price of equipment at end of project	$200k
Revenue per job	$12k
Variable cost per job	$4k
Quantity of jobs per year	120
Fixed costs per year, paid at the end of each year	$100k
Interest expense in first year (at t=1)	$16.091k
Interest expense in second year (at t=2)	$9.711k
Tax rate	30%
Government treasury bond yield	5%
Bank loan debt yield	6%
Levered cost of equity	12.5%
Market portfolio return	10%
Beta of assets	1.24
Beta of levered equity	1.5
Firm's and project's debt-to-equity ratio	25%

Notes

1. The project will require an immediate purchase of $50k of inventory, which will all be sold at cost when the project ends. Current liabilities are negligible so they can be ignored.

Assumptions

• The debt-to-equity 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. Note that interest expense is different in each year.
• Thousands are represented by 'k' (kilo).
• 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 nominal. 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) $684.222k

(b) $690.919k

(c) $697.616k

(d) $698.713k

(e) $710.601k

Question 399  option, no explanation

A European call 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 call 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 460  bond pricing, premium par and discount bonds

Below are some statements about loans and bonds. The first descriptive sentence is correct. But one of the second sentences about the loans' or bonds' prices is not correct. Which statement is NOT correct? Assume that interest rates are positive.

Note that coupons or interest payments are the periodic payments made throughout a bond or loan's life. The face or par value of a bond or loan is the amount paid at the end when the debt matures.

(a) A bullet loan has no interest payments but it does have a face value. Therefore it's a discount loan.

(b) A fully amortising loan has interest payments but does not have a face value. Therefore it's a premium loan.

(c) An interest only loan has interest payments and its price and face value are equal. Therefore it's a par loan.

(d) A zero coupon bond has no coupon payments but it does have a face value. Therefore it's a premium bond.

(e) A balloon loan has interest payments and its face value is more than its price. Therefore it's a discount loan.

Question 473  market capitalisation of equity

The below screenshot of Commonwealth Bank of Australia's (CBA) details were taken from the Google Finance website on 7 Nov 2014. Some information has been deliberately blanked out.

What was CBA's market capitalisation of equity?

(a) $431.18 billion

(b) $429 billion

(c) $134.07 billion

(d) $8.44 billion

(e) $3.21 billion

Question 764  bond pricing, no explanation

A 4.5% fixed coupon Australian Government bond was issued at par in mid-April 2009. Coupons are paid semi-annually in arrears in mid-April and mid-October each year. The face value is $1,000. The bond will mature in mid-April 2020, so the bond had an original tenor of 11 years.

Today is mid-September 2015 and similar bonds now yield 1.9% pa.

What is the bond's new price? Note: there are 10 semi-annual coupon payments remaining from now (mid-September 2015) until maturity (mid-April 2020); both yields are given as APR's compounding semi-annually; assume that the yield curve was flat before the change in yields, and remained flat afterwards as well.

(a) $1,108.390216

(b) $1,114.640575

(c) $1,123.457853

(d) $1,127.892613

(e) $1,132.344879

Question 794  option, Black-Scholes-Merton option pricing, option delta, no explanation

Which of the following quantities from the Black-Scholes-Merton option pricing formula gives the Delta of a European call option?

(a) ##N[d_1]##

(b) ##N[d_2]##

(c) ##−N[−d_1]##

(d) ##−N[−d_2]##

(e) ##N[−d_2]##

Where:

###d_1=\dfrac{\ln⁡[S_0/K]+(r+\sigma^2/2).T)}{\sigma.\sqrt{T}}### ###d_2=d_1-\sigma.\sqrt{T}=\dfrac{\ln⁡[S_0/K]+(r-\sigma^2/2).T)}{\sigma.\sqrt{T}}###

Question 833  option, delta, theta, standard deviation, no explanation

Which of the following statements about an option (either a call or put) and its underlying stock is NOT correct?

(a) The option’s expected future continuously compounded returns are always more than or equal to the underlying stock’s expected future continuously compounded returns.

(b) The option’s standard deviation of dollar price changes is always less than or equal to the underlying stock’s standard deviation of dollar price changes.

(c) The option’s standard deviation of continuously compounded returns are always less than or equal to the underlying stock’s standard deviation of continuously compounded returns.

(d) As time elapses and the maturity date of an option approaches, its price will fall, all other things remaining equal.

(e) If the underlying stock’s price rises by $0.01, the call option’s price will rise by less than $0.01 and the put option’s price will fall by less than $0.01.

Question 863  option, binomial option pricing

A one year European-style call option has a strike price of $4. The option's underlying stock pays no dividends and currently trades at $5. The risk-free interest rate is 10% pa continuously compounded. Use a single step binomial tree to calculate the option price, assuming that the price could rise to $8 ##(u = 1.6)## or fall to $3.125 ##(d = 1/1.6)## in one year. The call option price now is:

(a) 1.336851119

(b) 1.782468159

(c) 1.836881513

(d) 1.969931972

(e) 2.030068028