Fight Finance

Question 82  portfolio return

Portfolio Details
Stock	Expected return	Standard deviation	Correlation	Dollars invested
A	0.1	0.4	0.5	60
B	0.2	0.6		140

What is the expected return of the above portfolio?

(a) 0.15

(b) 0.17

(c) 0.1908

(d) 0.2412

(e) 0.34

Question 125  option, speculation, market efficiency

Suppose that the US government recently announced that subsidies for fresh milk producers will be gradually phased out over the next year. Newspapers say that there are expectations of a 40% increase in the spot price of fresh milk over the next year.

Option prices on fresh milk trading on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) reflect expectations of this 40% increase in spot prices over the next year. Similarly to the rest of the market, you believe that prices will rise by 40% over the next year.

What option trades are likely to be profitable, or to be more specific, result in a positive Net Present Value (NPV)?

Assume that:

• Only the spot price is expected to increase and there is no change in expected volatility or other variables that affect option prices.
• No taxes, transaction costs, information asymmetry, bid-ask spreads or other market frictions.

(a) Buy one year call options on fresh milk.

(b) Buy one year put options on fresh milk.

(c) Sell one year call options on fresh milk.

(d) All of the above option trades are likely to have a positive NPV.

(e) None of the above option trades are likely to have a positive NPV.

Question 361  CFFA

Over the next year, the management of an unlevered company plans to:

• Make $5m in sales, $1.9m in net income and $2m in equity free cash flow (EFCF).
• Pay dividends of $1m.
• Complete a $1.3m share buy-back.

Assume that:

• All amounts are received and paid at the end of the year so you can ignore the time value of money.
• The firm has sufficient retained profits to legally pay the dividend and complete the buy back.
• The firm plans to run a very tight ship, with no excess cash above operating requirements currently or over the next year.

How much new equity financing will the company need? In other words, what is the value of new shares that will need to be issued?

(a) $2m

(b) $1m

(c) $0.4m

(d) $0.3m

(e) No new shares need to be issued, the firm will be sufficiently financed.

Question 368  interest tax shield, CFFA

A method commonly seen in textbooks for calculating a levered firm's free cash flow (FFCF, or CFFA) is the following:

###\begin{aligned} FFCF &= (Rev - COGS - Depr - FC - IntExp)(1-t_c) + \\ &\space\space\space+ Depr - CapEx -\Delta NWC + IntExp(1-t_c) \\ \end{aligned}###

Does this annual FFCF or the annual interest tax shield?

Question 378  leverage, capital structure, no explanation

A levered company's required return on debt is always less than its required return on equity. or ?

Question 588  option

If trader A has sold the right that allows counterparty B to buy the underlying asset from him at maturity if counterparty B wants then trader A is:

(a) Long a call option.

(b) Long a put option.

(c) Short a call option.

(d) Short a put option.

(e) Neither long or short a call or a put option.

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 683  open interest, trade volume, future

Alice, Bob, Chris and Delta are traders in the futures market. The following trades occur over a single day in a newly-opened equity index future that matures in one year which the exchange just made available.

1. Alice buys a future from Bob.

2. Chris buys a future from Delta.

3. Alice buys a future from Chris.

These were the only trades made in this equity index future. What was the trading volume and what is the open interest?

(a) Daily trading volume is 3 contracts, open interest is 3 contracts.

(b) Daily trading volume is 3 contracts, open interest is 2 contracts.

(c) Daily trading volume is 3 contracts, open interest is 1 contract.

(d) Daily trading volume is 2 contracts, open interest is 3 contracts.

(e) Daily trading volume is 2 contracts, open interest is 2 contracts.

Question 732  real and nominal returns and cash flows, inflation, income and capital returns

An investor bought a bond for $100 (at t=0) and one year later it paid its annual coupon of $1 (at t=1). Just after the coupon was paid, the bond price was $100.50 (at t=1). Inflation over the past year (from t=0 to t=1) was 3% pa, given as an effective annual rate.

Which of the following statements is NOT correct? The bond investment produced a:

(a) Nominal income return of 1% pa ##\left( =\dfrac{1}{100} \right)##.

(b) Nominal capital return of 0.5% pa ##\left( =\dfrac{100.5-100}{100} \right)##.

(c) Nominal total return of 1.5% pa ##\left( =\dfrac{100.5-100+1}{100} \right)##.

(d) Real income return of 0.9708738% pa##\left( =\dfrac{ 1/(1+0.03)^1}{100} \right)##.

(e) Real capital return of 0.4854369% pa ##\left( =\dfrac{ (100.5-100)/(1+0.03)^1}{100} \right) ##.

Question 825  future, hedging, tailing the hedge, speculation, no explanation

An equity index fund manager controls a USD500 million diversified equity portfolio with a beta of 0.9. The equity manager expects a significant rally in equity prices next year. The market does not think that this will happen. If the fund manager wishes to increase his portfolio beta to 1.5, how many S&P500 futures should he buy?

The US market equity index is the S&P500. One year CME futures on the S&P500 currently trade at 2,155 points and the spot price is 2,180 points. Each point is worth $250.

The number of one year S&P500 futures contracts that the fund manager should buy is:

(a) 550

(b) 557

(c) 826

(d) 835

(e) 1392