In Australia, domestic university students are allowed to buy concession tickets for the bus, train and ferry which sell at a discount of 50% to full-price tickets.
The Australian Government do not allow international university students to buy concession tickets, they have to pay the full price.
Some international students see this as unfair and they are willing to pay for fake university identification cards which have the concession sticker.
What is the most that an international student would be willing to pay for a fake identification card?
Assume that international students:
- consider buying their fake card on the morning of the first day of university from their neighbour, just before they leave to take the train into university.
- buy their weekly train tickets on the morning of the first day of each week.
- ride the train to university and back home again every day seven days per week until summer holidays 40 weeks from now. The concession card only lasts for those 40 weeks. Assume that there are 52 weeks in the year for the purpose of interest rate conversion.
- a single full-priced one-way train ride costs $5.
- have a discount rate of 11% pa, given as an effective annual rate.
Approach this question from a purely financial view point, ignoring the illegality, embarrassment and the morality of committing fraud.
Question 119 market efficiency, fundamental analysis, joint hypothesis problem
Your friend claims that by reading 'The Economist' magazine's economic news articles, she can identify shares that will have positive abnormal expected returns over the next 2 years. Assuming that her claim is true, which statement(s) are correct?
(i) Weak form market efficiency is broken.
(ii) Semi-strong form market efficiency is broken.
(iii) Strong form market efficiency is broken.
(iv) The asset pricing model used to measure the abnormal returns (such as the CAPM) is either wrong (mis-specification error) or is measured using the wrong inputs (data errors) so the returns may not be abnormal but rather fair for the level of risk.
Select the most correct response:
Question 155 inflation, real and nominal returns and cash flows, Loan, effective rate conversion
You are a banker about to grant a 2 year loan to a customer. The loan's principal and interest will be repaid in a single payment at maturity, sometimes called a zero-coupon loan, discount loan or bullet loan.
You require a real return of 6% pa over the two years, given as an effective annual rate. Inflation is expected to be 2% this year and 4% next year, both given as effective annual rates.
You judge that the customer can afford to pay back $1,000,000 in 2 years, given as a nominal cash flow. How much should you lend to her right now?
A share pays annual dividends. It just paid a dividend of $2. The growth rate in the dividend is 3% pa. You estimate that the stock's required return is 8% pa. Both the discount rate and growth rate are given as effective annual rates.
Using the dividend discount model, what is the share price?
An investor bought two fixed-coupon bonds issued by the same company, a zero-coupon bond and a 7% pa semi-annual coupon bond. Both bonds have a face value of $1,000, mature in 10 years, and had a yield at the time of purchase of 8% pa.
A few years later, yields fell to 6% pa. Which of the following statements is correct? Note that a capital gain is an increase in price.
You just started work at your new job which pays $48,000 per year.
The human resources department have given you the option of being paid at the end of every week or every month.
Assume that there are 4 weeks per month, 12 months per year and 48 weeks per year.
Bank interest rates are 12% pa given as an APR compounding per month.
What is the dollar gain over one year, as a net present value, of being paid every week rather than every month?
The following cash flows are expected:
- 10 yearly payments of $80, with the first payment in 6.5 years from now (first payment at t=6.5).
- A single payment of $500 in 4 years and 3 months (t=4.25) from now.
What is the NPV of the cash flows if the discount rate is 10% given as an effective annual rate?
The famous investor Warren Buffett is one of few portfolio managers who appears to have consistently beaten the market. His company Berkshire Hathaway (BRK) appears to have outperformed the US S&P500 market index, shown in the graph below.
Read the below statements about Warren Buffett and the implications for the Efficient Markets Hypothesis (EMH) theory of Eugene Fama. Assume that the first sentence is true. Analyse the second sentence and select the answer option which is NOT correct. In other words, find the false statement in the second sentence.
A one year European-style call option has a strike price of $4.
The option's underlying stock currently trades at $5, pays no dividends and its standard deviation of continuously compounded returns is 47% pa.
The risk-free interest rate is 10% pa continuously compounded.
Use the Black-Scholes-Merton formula to calculate the option price. The call option price now is:
The market's expected total return is 10% pa and the risk free rate is 5% pa, both given as effective annual rates.
A stock has a beta of 0.7.
What do you think will be the stock's expected return over the next year, given as an effective annual rate?