Fight Finance

Question 26  APR, effective rate

A European bond paying annual coupons of 6% offers a yield of 10% pa.

Convert the yield into an effective monthly rate, an effective annual rate and an effective daily rate. Assume that there are 365 days in a year.

All answers are given in the same order:

### r_\text{eff, monthly} , r_\text{eff, yearly} , r_\text{eff, daily} ###

(a) 0.0041, 0.05, 0.0001.

(b) 0.0080, 0.1, 0.0003.

(c) 0.0083, 0.1, 0.0003.

(d) 0.0083, 2.1384, 0.0031.

(e) 0.0083, 0.1047, 0.0033.

Question 42  interest only loan

You just signed up for a 30 year interest-only mortgage with monthly payments of $3,000 per month. The interest rate is 6% pa which is not expected to change.

How much did you borrow? After 15 years, just after the 180th payment at that time, how much will be owing on the mortgage? The interest rate is still 6% and is not expected to change. Remember that the mortgage is interest-only and that mortgage payments are paid in arrears (at the end of the month).

(a) $495,533.92, $349,640.96

(b) $500,374.84, $355,510.54

(c) $500,374.84, $250,187.42

(d) $600,000.00, $600,000.00

(e) $600,000.00, $300,000.00

Question 281  equivalent annual cash flow

You just bought a nice dress which you plan to wear once per month on nights out. You bought it a moment ago for $600 (at t=0). In your experience, dresses used once per month last for 6 years.

Your younger sister is a student with no money and wants to borrow your dress once a month when she hits the town. With the increased use, your dress will only last for another 3 years rather than 6.

What is the present value of the cost of letting your sister use your current dress for the next 3 years?

Assume: that bank interest rates are 10% pa, given as an effective annual rate; you will buy a new dress when your current one wears out; your sister will only use the current dress, not the next one that you will buy; and the price of a new dress never changes.

(a) 300

(b) 283.1403

(c) 282.2849

(d) 257.4003

(e) 225.3944

Question 402  PE ratio, no explanation

Which of the following companies is most suitable for valuation using PE multiples techniques?

(a) A company with positive earnings that does not have any comparable firms.

(b) A company with positive earnings that has comparable firms with positive earnings.

(c) A company with positive earnings that has comparable firms with negative earnings.

(d) A company with negative earnings that has comparable firms with negative earnings.

(e) A company with negative earnings that has comparable firms with positive earnings.

Question 542  price gains and returns over time, IRR, NPV, income and capital returns, effective return

For an asset price to double every 10 years, what must be the expected future capital return, given as an effective annual rate?

(a) 0.2

(b) 0.116123

(c) 0.082037

(d) 0.071773

(e) 0.06054

Question 591  short selling, future, option

After doing extensive fundamental analysis of a company, you believe that their shares are overpriced and will soon fall significantly. The market believes that there will be no such fall.

Which of the following strategies is NOT a good idea, assuming that your prediction is true?

(a) Sell any of the firm's shares that you already own.

(b) Short-sell the firm's shares.

(c) Sell futures written on the shares.

(d) Buy put options written on the shares.

(e) Buy call options written on the shares.

Question 737  financial statement, balance sheet, income statement

Where can a publicly listed firm's book value of equity be found? It can be sourced from the company's:

(a) Income statement

(b) Balance sheet

(c) Cash flow statement

(d) Stock exchange data

(e) It's not published, it can only be estimated using multiples or discounted cash flow methods.

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.

Question 811  log-normal distribution, mean and median returns, return distribution, arithmetic and geometric averages

Which of the following statements about probability distributions is NOT correct?

(a) A normally distributed variable’s mean, median and mode are all expected to be equal.

(b) A log-normally distributed variable’s mean, median and mode are all expected to be different. Mean > median > mode.

(c) Future stock prices ##(P_t )## are often assumed to be log-normally distributed.

(d) Stocks’ annual net discrete returns ##(P_t/P_0-1)## must be normally distributed when stock prices ##(P_t)## are log-normally distributed.

(e) The total area under a probability density function (pdf) is always one.

Question 827  future, basis risk, no explanation

You intend to use futures on oil to hedge the risk of purchasing oil. There is no cross-hedging risk. Oil pays no dividends but it’s costly to store. Which of the following statements about basis risk in this scenario is NOT correct?

(a) Basis risk makes hedges more risky.

(b) Basis risk can only lead to worse than expected effective dollar prices.

(c) Basis risk only occurs when the future is closed out early, before it matures.

(d) ‘The basis’ is defined as the underlying spot price less the futures price quote ##(S_t - F_{t,T})##.

(e) The futures price of oil will tend to be higher than the spot price due to storage costs, so the basis will tend to be positive for hedgers who long futures contracts.