Fight Finance

Question 91  WACC, capital structure

A firm has a debt-to-assets ratio of 50%. The firm then issues a large amount of equity to raise money for new projects of similar systematic risk to the company's existing projects. Assume a classical tax system. Which statement is correct?

(a) The debt-to-assets (D/V) ratio will increase.

(b) The debt-to-equity ratio (D/E) will increase.

(c) Firm value is likely to have increased due to the higher amount of interest tax shields, assuming that there will not be any costs of financial distress.

(d) The company's after-tax WACC is likely to stay the same.

(e) The company's before-tax WACC is likely to stay the same.

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 621  market efficiency, technical analysis

Technical traders:

(a) Believe that asset prices follow a random walk.

(b) Believe that markets are weak form efficient

(c) Are pessimists, they believe that they cannot beat the market

(d) Base their investment decisions on past publicly available news

(e) Believe that the theory of weak form market efficiency is broken.

Question 688  future, hedging

A pig farmer in the US is worried about the price of hogs falling and wants to lock in a price now. In one year the pig farmer intends to sell 1,000,000 pounds of hogs. Luckily, one year CME lean hog futures expire on the exact day that he wishes to sell his pigs. The futures have a notional principal of 40,000 pounds (about 18 metric tons) and currently trade at a price of 63.85 cents per pound. The underlying lean hogs spot price is 77.15 cents per pound. The correlation between the futures price and the underlying hogs price is one and the standard deviations are both 4 cents per pound. The initial margin is USD1,500 and the maintenance margin is USD1,200 per futures contract.

Which of the below statements is NOT correct?

(a) The pig farmer should sell futures to hedge against the danger of falling hog prices.

(b) The pig farmer should transact 30 lean hogs futures contracts with tailing since futures contracts require margins.

(c) The total initial margin that must be paid to the pig farmer’s futures broker is $45,000.

(d) If the futures price falls by more than 0.01175 cents per pound (rounded to 5 decimal places) then the pig farmer will receive a margin call from their broker.

(e) The future is trading in backwardation since the spot price exceeds the futures price, so the current basis is positive 13.30 cents.

Question 698  utility, risk aversion, utility function

Mr Blue, Miss Red and Mrs Green are people with different utility functions. Which of the statements about the 3 utility functions is NOT correct?

(a) Neither Miss Red nor Mrs Green would appear rational to an economist.

(b) Mrs Green is satiated when she has $25 of wealth. That is her bliss point.

(c) Mrs Green is risk loving when she has between zero and $25 of wealth, same as Mr Blue.

(d) Mrs Green is risk averse when she has between $25 and $50 of wealth.

(e) Mrs Green is risk loving when she has between $50 and $100 of wealth, same as Mr Blue.

Question 740  real and nominal returns and cash flows, DDM, inflation

Taking inflation into account when using the DDM can be hard. Which of the following formulas will NOT give a company's current stock price ##(P_0)##? Assume that the annual dividend was just paid ##(C_0)##, and the next dividend will be paid in one year ##(C_1)##.

(a) ##P_0=\dfrac{C_\text{1,nominal}}{r_\text{nominal} - g_\text{nominal}}##

(b) ##P_0 =\dfrac{C_0 (1+g_\text{nominal} )^1}{r_\text{nominal} - g_\text{nominal}}##

(c) ##P_0=\dfrac{C_\text{1,real}}{r_\text{real} - g_\text{real}}##

(d) ##P_0=\dfrac{C_0 (1+r_\text{real})^1}{r_\text{real} - g_\text{real}}##

(e) ##P_0=\dfrac{C_0(1+r_\text{nominal} )^1}{r_\text{nominal} - g_\text{nominal}} - C_0##

Question 837  option, put call parity

Being long a call and short a put which have the same exercise prices and underlying stock is equivalent to being:

(a) Long a stock only.

(b) Long a stock and long a bond.

(c) Long a stock and short a bond.

(d) Short a stock and long a bond.

(e) Short a stock and short a bond.

Question 897  comparative advantage in trade, production possibilities curve, no explanation

Adam and Bella are the only people on a remote island. Their production possibility curves are shown in the graph.

Which of the following statements is NOT correct?

(a) The equation of Adam’s production possibilities line is coconuts = -7/6*dates + 7.

(b) The equation of Bella’s production possibilities line is coconuts = -3/5*dates + 5

(c) Adam could pick 2 dates and 4.667 coconuts in one hour.

(d) Bella could pick 2 dates and 1.8 coconuts in one hour.

Question 957  Annuity, NPV

The present value of an annuity of 3 annual payments of $5,000 in arrears (at the end of each year) is $12,434.26 when interest rates are 10% pa compounding annually.

If the same amount of $12,434.26 is put in the bank at the same interest rate of 10% pa compounded annually and the same cash flow of $5,000 is withdrawn at the end of every year, how much money will be in the bank in 3 years, just after that third $5,000 payment is withdrawn?

(a) $4,545.45

(b) $4,115.74

(c) $1,655

(d) $1,550

(e) $0

Question 994  duration

Find the Macaulay duration of a 2 year 5% pa annual fixed coupon bond which has a $100 face value and currently has a yield to maturity of 8% pa. The Macaulay duration is:

(a) 1.925669 years

(b) 1.951087 years

(c) 2 years

(d) 2.048913 years

(e) 2.074331 years