Fight Finance

Question 275  derivative terminology, future

The 'futures price' in a futures contract is paid at the start when the futures contract is agreed to. or ?

Question 282  expected and historical returns, income and capital returns

You're the boss of an investment bank's equities research team. Your five analysts are each trying to find the expected total return over the next year of shares in a mining company. The mining firm:

• Is regarded as a mature company since it's quite stable in size and was floated around 30 years ago. It is not a high-growth company;
• Share price is very sensitive to changes in the price of the market portfolio, economic growth, the exchange rate and commodities prices. Due to this, its standard deviation of total returns is much higher than that of the market index;
• Experienced tough times in the last 10 years due to unexpected falls in commodity prices.
• Shares are traded in an active liquid market.

Your team of analysts present their findings, and everyone has different views. While there's no definitive true answer, whose calculation of the expected total return is the most plausible? Assume that:

• The analysts' source data is correct and true, but their inferences might be wrong;
• All returns and yields are given as effective annual nominal rates.

(a) Alice says 5% pa since she calculated that this was the average total yield on government bonds over the last 10 years. She says that this is also the expected total yield implied by current prices on one year government bonds.

(b) Bob says 4% pa since he calculated that this was the average total return on the mining stock over the last 10 years.

(c) Cate says 3% pa since she calculated that this was the average growth rate of the share price over the last 10 years.

(d) Dave says 6% pa since he calculated that this was the average growth rate of the share market price index (not the accumulation index) over the last 10 years.

(e) Eve says 15% pa since she calculated that this was the discount rate implied by the dividend discount model using the current share price, forecast dividend in one year and a 3% growth rate in dividends thereafter, which is the expected long term inflation rate.

Question 286  bill pricing

A 30-day Bank Accepted Bill has a face value of $1,000,000. The interest rate is 2.5% pa and there are 365 days in the year. What is its price now?

(a) $997,972.5283

(b) $997,949.4190

(c) $995,926.1048

(d) $975,609.7561

(e) $973,609.1893

Question 303  WACC, CAPM, CFFA

There are many different ways to value a firm's assets. Which of the following will NOT give the correct market value of a levered firm's assets ##(V_L)##? Assume that:

• The firm is financed by listed common stock and vanilla annual fixed coupon bonds, which are both traded in a liquid market.
• The bonds' yield is equal to the coupon rate, so the bonds are issued at par. The yield curve is flat and yields are not expected to change. When bonds mature they will be rolled over by issuing the same number of new bonds with the same expected yield and coupon rate, and so on forever.
• Tax rates on the dividends and capital gains received by investors are equal, and capital gains tax is paid every year, even on unrealised gains regardless of when the asset is sold.
• There is no re-investment of the firm's cash back into the business. All of the firm's excess cash flow is paid out as dividends so real growth is zero.
• The firm operates in a mature industry with zero real growth.
• All cash flows and rates in the below equations are real (not nominal) and are expected to be stable forever. Therefore the perpetuity equation with no growth is suitable for valuation.

(a) ##V_L = n_\text{shares}.P_\text{share} + n_\text{bonds}.P_\text{bond}##

(b) ##V_L = n_\text{shares}.\dfrac{\text{Dividend per share}}{r_f + \beta_{EL}(r_m - r_f)} + n_\text{bonds}.\dfrac{\text{Coupon per bond}}{r_f + \beta_D(r_m - r_f)}##

(c) ##V_L = \dfrac{\text{CFFA}_{L}}{r_\text{WACC before tax}}##

(d) ##V_L = \dfrac{\text{CFFA}_{U}}{r_\text{WACC after tax}}##

(e) ##V_L = \dfrac{\text{CFFA}_{L}}{r_\text{WACC after tax}}##

Where:

###r_\text{WACC before tax} = r_D.\frac{D}{V_L} + r_{EL}.\frac{E_L}{V_L} = \text{Weighted average cost of capital before tax}### ###r_\text{WACC after tax} = r_D.(1-t_c).\frac{D}{V_L} + r_{EL}.\frac{E_L}{V_L} = \text{Weighted average cost of capital after tax}### ###NI_L=(Rev-COGS-FC-Depr-\mathbf{IntExp}).(1-t_c) = \text{Net Income Levered}### ###CFFA_L=NI_L+Depr-CapEx - \varDelta NWC+\mathbf{IntExp} = \text{Cash Flow From Assets Levered}### ###NI_U=(Rev-COGS-FC-Depr).(1-t_c) = \text{Net Income Unlevered}### ###CFFA_U=NI_U+Depr-CapEx - \varDelta NWC= \text{Cash Flow From Assets Unlevered}###

Question 520  NPV, DDM

The following cash flows are expected:

• Constant perpetual yearly payments of $70, with the first payment in 2.5 years from now (first payment at t=2.5).
• A single payment of $600 in 3 years and 9 months (t=3.75) from now.

What is the NPV of the cash flows if the discount rate is 10% given as an effective annual rate?

(a) $875.549502

(b) $921.135446

(c) $971.279985

(d) $1,026.438978

(e) $1,119.690058

Question 543  price gains and returns over time, IRR, NPV, income and capital returns, effective return

For an asset price to triple every 5 years, what must be the expected future capital return, given as an effective annual rate?

(a) 0.6

(b) 0.319508

(c) 0.269705

(d) 0.245731

(e) 0.219755

Question 549

An Apple iPhone 6 smart phone can be bought now for $999. An Android Samsung Galaxy 5 smart phone can be bought now for $599.

If the Samsung phone lasts for four years, approximately how long must the Apple phone last for to have the same equivalent annual cost?

Assume that both phones have equivalent features besides their lifetimes, that both are worthless once they've outlasted their life, the discount rate is 10% pa given as an effective annual rate, and there are no extra costs or benefits from either phone.

(a) 16 years

(b) 14 years

(c) 12 years

(d) 10 years

(e) 8 years

Question 637  option, option payoff at maturity, no explanation

Which of the below formulas gives the payoff ##(f)## at maturity ##(T)## from being short a call option? Let the underlying asset price at maturity be ##S_T## and the exercise price be ##X_T##.

(a) ##f_{SC,T}=max⁡(S_T-X_T,0)##

(b) ##f_{SC,T}=max⁡(X_T-S_T,0)##

(c) ##f_{SC,T}=-max⁡(S_T-X_T,0)##

(d) ##f_{SC,T}=-max⁡(X_T-S_T,0)##

(e) ##f_{SC,T}=min⁡(X_T-S_T,0)##

Question 684  future, arbitrage, no explanation

An equity index stands at 100 points and the one year equity futures price is 102.

The equity index is expected to have a dividend yield of 4% 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) Under priced and should be bought.

(b) Under priced and should be sold.

(c) Over priced and should be bought.

(d) Over priced and should be sold.

(e) Fairly priced and an arbitrageur would be indifferent to buying or selling them.

Question 699  utility, risk aversion, utility function, gamble

Mr Blue, Miss Red and Mrs Green are people with different utility functions.

Each person has $50 of initial wealth. A coin toss game is offered to each person at a casino where the player can win or lose $50. Each player can flip a coin and if they flip heads, they receive $50. If they flip tails then they will lose $50. Which of the following statements is NOT correct?

(a) Mr Blue's expected utility of wealth from gambling is 5 while refusing is 7.07. So the gamble makes him less happy.

(b) Mrs Green's expected utility of wealth from gambling is 7.07 while refusing is 5. So the gamble makes her more happy.

(c) Mr Blue's certainty equivalent of the risky gamble is $25. This is less than his current wealth of $50 which is why he would refuse.

(d) Miss Red's certainty equivalent of the risky gamble is $50. This is equal to her current wealth of $50 which is why she is indifferent to gambling or not.

(e) Mrs Green's certainty equivalent of the risky gamble is $70.71. This is more than her current wealth of $50 which is why she would accept.