Fight Finance

Question 300  NPV, opportunity cost

What is the net present value (NPV) of undertaking a full-time Australian undergraduate business degree as an Australian citizen? Only include the cash flows over the duration of the degree, ignore any benefits or costs of the degree after it's completed.

Assume the following:

• The degree takes 3 years to complete and all students pass all subjects.
• There are 2 semesters per year and 4 subjects per semester.
• University fees per subject per semester are $1,277, paid at the start of each semester. Fees are expected to remain constant in real terms for the next 3 years.
• There are 52 weeks per year.
• The first semester is just about to start (t=0). The first semester lasts for 19 weeks (t=0 to 19).
• The second semester starts immediately afterwards (t=19) and lasts for another 19 weeks (t=19 to 38).
• The summer holidays begin after the second semester ends and last for 14 weeks (t=38 to 52). Then the first semester begins the next year, and so on.
• Working full time at the grocery store instead of studying full-time pays $20/hr and you can work 35 hours per week. Wages are paid at the end of each week and are expected to remain constant in real terms.
• Full-time students can work full-time during the summer holiday at the grocery store for the same rate of $20/hr for 35 hours per week.
• The discount rate is 9.8% pa. All rates and cash flows are real. Inflation is expected to be 3% pa. All rates are effective annual.

The NPV of costs from undertaking the university degree is:

(a) $98,385.98

(b) $97,915.91

(c) $75,130.29

(d) $54,018.93

(e) $27,523.89

Question 509  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 annually. So there's only one coupon per year, paid in arrears every year.

(a) $114.8775

(b) $114.7202

(c) $86.5798

(d) $86.4097

(e) $40.2605

Question 540  APR, effective rate, no explanation

Which one of the below statements about effective rates and annualised percentage rates (APR's) is NOT correct?

(a) An effective semi-annual rate could be called: "a six month rate compounding per six months".

(b) An APR compounding semi-annually could be called: "a yearly rate compounding per six months".

(c) An effective monthly rate could be called: "a monthly rate compounding every month".

(d) An APR compounding monthly could be called: "a monthly rate compounding per year".

(e) An effective daily rate could be called: "a daily rate compounding every day".

Question 552  bond pricing, income and capital returns

An investor bought a 10 year 2.5% pa fixed coupon government bond priced at par. The face value is $100. Coupons are paid semi-annually and the next one is in 6 months.

Six months later, just after the coupon at that time was paid, yields suddenly and unexpectedly fell to 2% pa. Note that all yields above are given as APR's compounding semi-annually.

What was the bond investors' historical total return over that first 6 month period, given as an effective semi-annual rate?

(a) 0.067872

(b) 0.055565

(c) 0.043065

(d) 0.030565

(e) 0.0075

Question 658  CFFA, income statement, balance sheet, no explanation

To value a business's assets, the free cash flow of the firm (FCFF, also called CFFA) needs to be calculated. This requires figures from the firm's income statement and balance sheet. For what figures is the income statement needed? Note that the income statement is sometimes also called the profit and loss, P&L, or statement of financial performance.

(a) Net income, depreciation and interest expense.

(b) Depreciation and capital expenditure.

(c) Current assets and current liabilities.

(d) Current assets, current liabilities and capital expenditure.

(e) Current assets, current liabilities and depreciation expense.

Question 725  return distribution, mean and median returns

If a stock's future expected effective annual returns are log-normally distributed, what will be bigger, the stock's or effective annual return? Or would you expect them to be ?

Question 754  fully amortising loan, interest only loan

How much more can you borrow using an interest-only loan compared to a 25-year fully amortising loan if interest rates are 4% pa compounding per month and are not expected to change? If it makes it easier, assume that you can afford to pay $2,000 per month on either loan. Express your answer as a proportional increase using the following formula:

###\text{Proportional Increase} = \dfrac{V_\text{0,interest only}}{V_\text{0,fully amortising}} - 1###

(a) 63.1508%

(b) 60.0299%

(c) 58.3511%

(d) 36.8492%

(e) 11.5269%

Question 769  short selling, idiom, no explanation

"Buy low, sell high" is a well-known saying. It suggests that investors should buy low then sell high, in that order.

How would you re-phrase that saying to describe short selling?

(a) Buy high, then sell low.

(b) Buy low, then sell high.

(c) Sell high, then buy low.

(d) Sell low, then buy high.

(e) Sell high, then buy high.

Question 853  gross domestic product

Which form of production is included in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) reported by the government statistics agency?

(a) Home-production such as Grandma babysitting her grand-children for free.

(b) Production in the under-ground economy such as work paid for in cash to evade the tax authorities.

(c) Production in the wild, such as when kangaroos multiply in the bush.

(d) Goods produced and exchanged in the barter economy that are not reported to the tax authorities.

(e) Inventory build-up such as goods produced in a factory that were sold to a wholesaler but have not yet been sold to a retailer or consumer.

Question 859  money supply, no explanation

The below table shows Australian monetary aggregates. Note that ‘M3’ is the sum of all the figures in the table and ‘ADI’ stands for Authorised Deposit-taking Institution such as a bank, building society or credit union.

Australian Monetary Aggregates
March 2017, AUD billions
Currency	Current deposits with banks	Certificates of deposit issued by banks	Term deposits with banks	Other deposits with banks	Deposits with non-bank ADIs	M3
69.3	271.6	207.2	562.3	838.7	36.9	1986.0

 

Source: RBA Statistical Table D3 Monetary Aggregates.

Which of the following statements is NOT correct?

(a) Current deposits are the notes and coins that banks keep in their physical vaults and Automatic Teller Machines (ATM’s).

(b) Current deposits with banks pay little interest to depositors but are highly liquid since they can be withdrawn using ATM’s.

(c) The government directly controls the amount of notes and coins.

(d) The central bank indirectly controls the amount of deposits by changing the cash rate.

(e) When a commercial bank lends money to a borrower to buy a house, that money is likely to be deposited by the house seller into another bank.