Fight Finance

Question 289  DDM, expected and historical returns, ROE

In the dividend discount model:

###P_0 = \dfrac{C_1}{r-g}###

The return ##r## is supposed to be the:

(a) Expected future total return of the market price of equity.

(b) Expected future total return of the book price of equity.

(c) Actual historical total return on the market price of equity.

(d) Actual historical total return on the book price of equity.

(e) Actual historical return on equity (ROE) defined as (Net Income / Owners Equity).

Question 298  interest only loan

A prospective home buyer can afford to pay $2,000 per month in mortgage loan repayments. The central bank recently lowered its policy rate by 0.25%, and residential home lenders cut their mortgage loan rates from 4.74% to 4.49%.

How much more can the prospective home buyer borrow now that interest rates are 4.49% rather than 4.74%? Give your answer as a proportional increase over the original amount he could borrow (##V_\text{before}##), so:

###\text{Proportional increase} = \frac{V_\text{after}-V_\text{before}}{V_\text{before}} ###

Assume that:

• Interest rates are expected to be constant over the life of the loan.

• Loans are interest-only and have a life of 30 years.

• Mortgage loan payments are made every month in arrears and all interest rates are given as annualised percentage rates compounding per month.

(a) 0.055679

(b) 0.029631

(c) 0.029547

(d) 0.006245

(e) 0.0025

Question 381  Merton model of corporate debt, option, real option

In the Merton model of corporate debt, buying a levered company's debt is equivalent to buying risk free government bonds and:

(a) Selling the company's assets.

(b) Buying a call option on the company's assets.

(c) Buying a put option on the company's assets.

(d) Selling a call option on the company's assets.

(e) Selling a put option on the company's assets.

Question 391  real option, option

An expansion option is best modeled as a or option?

Question 510  bond pricing

Calculate the price of a newly issued ten year bond with a face value of $100, a yield of 8% pa and a fixed coupon rate of 6% pa, paid semi-annually. So there are two coupons per year, paid in arrears every six months.

(a) $114.8775

(b) $114.7202

(c) $86.5798

(d) $86.4097

(e) $40.2605

Question 562  covariance

What is the covariance of a variable X with itself?

The cov(X, X) or ##\sigma_{X,X}## equals:

(a) var(X) or ##\sigma_X^2##

(b) sd(X) or ##\sigma_X##

(c) 1

(d) 0

(e) Mathematically undefined

Question 706  utility, risk aversion, utility function

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

Note that a fair gamble is a bet that has an expected value of zero, such as paying $0.50 to win $1 in a coin flip with heads or nothing if it lands tails. Fairly priced insurance is when the expected present value of the insurance premiums is equal to the expected loss from the disaster that the insurance protects against, such as the cost of rebuilding a home after a catastrophic fire.

Which of the following statements is NOT correct?

(a) Mr Blue, Miss Red and Mrs Green all prefer more wealth to less. This is rational from an economist's point of view.

(b) Mr Blue is risk averse. He will not enjoy a fair gamble and would like to buy fairly priced insurance.

(c) Miss Red is risk-neutral. She will not enjoy a fair gamble but wouldn't oppose it either. Similarly with fairly priced insurance.

(d) Mrs Green is risk-loving. She would enjoy a fair gamble and would dislike fairly priced insurance.

(e) Mr Blue would like to buy insurance, but only if it is fairly or under priced.

Question 887  foreign exchange rate, no explanation

Examine the graph of the AUD versus the USD, EUR and JPY. Note that RHS means right hand side and LHS left hand side which indicates which axis each line corresponds to. Assume inflation rates in each country were equal over the time period 1984 to 2018.

Which of the following statements is NOT correct?

(a) The AUD was strongest against the JPY in 1984. This would have been a good time for Australians to holiday in Japan.

(b) Between 2001 and 2007 the AUD appreciated against the USD which would have been bad news for Australian exporters.

(c) In 1985 the AUD depreciated against the USD, JPY and EUR.

(d) In 2011 and 2012, Australian products would have appeared cheap in USD for Americans compared to the past.

(e) Between 1984 and 1986, the JPY appreciated against the USD.

Question 895  comparative advantage in trade, production possibilities curve

Adam and Bella are the only people on a remote island.

Luckily there are Coconut and Date palm trees on the island that grow delicious fruit. The problem is that harvesting the fruit takes a lot of work.

Adam can pick 7 coconuts per hour, 6 dates per hour or any linear combination of coconuts and dates. For example, he could pick 3.5 coconuts and 3 dates per hour.

Bella can pick 3 coconuts per hour, 5 dates per hour or any linear combination. For example, she could pick 1.5 coconuts and 2.5 dates per hour.

This information is summarised in the table and graph:

Harvest Rates Per Hour
	Coconuts	Dates
Adam	7	6
Bella	3	5

 

Which of the following statements is NOT correct?

(a) Adam’s opportunity cost of picking one date per hour is 7/6 coconuts, so he picks around 1.1667 coconuts per one date per one hour.

(b) Bella’s opportunity cost of picking one date per hour is 3/5 coconuts, so she picks around 0.6 coconuts per one date per one hour.

(c) Adam’s opportunity cost of picking one coconut per hour is 6/7 dates, so he picks around 0.8571 dates per one coconut per one hour.

(d) Bella’s opportunity cost of picking one coconut per hour is 5/3 dates, so she picks around 1.6667 dates per one coconut per one hour.

(e) The gradients (rise over run) of the lines in the graph are measured in dates per one coconut per hour.

Question 916  future, future valuation

A stock is expected to pay its semi-annual dividend of $1 per share for the foreseeable future. The current stock price is $40 and the continuously compounded risk free rate is 3% pa for all maturities. An investor has just taken a long position in a 12-month futures contract on the stock. The last dividend payment was exactly 4 months ago. Therefore the next $1 dividend is in 2 months, and the $1 dividend after is 8 months from now. Which of the following statements about this scenario is NOT correct?

(a) The initial futures price would be $39.1828.

(b) The initial value of the futures contract would be zero.

(c) If the spot price rose to $45 at month 1, then the value of the futures contract would be positive $4.8999 at that time.

(d) If the spot price fell to $35 at month 3, then the value of the futures contract would be negative $4.1828 at that time.

(e) If the spot price remained at $40 until maturity, then the value of the futures contract would be positive $0.8172 at that time.