Fight Finance

Which of the following statements about standard statistical mathematics notation is NOT correct?

Diversification in a portfolio of two assets works best when the correlation between their returns is:

All things remaining equal, the variance of a portfolio of two positively-weighted stocks rises as:

What is the standard deviation (not variance) of returns of the above portfolio?

An investor wants to make a portfolio of two stocks A and B with a target expected portfolio return of 6% pa.

• Stock A has an expected return of 5% pa.
• Stock B has an expected return of 10% pa.

What portfolio weights should the investor have in stocks A and B respectively?

An investor wants to make a portfolio of two stocks A and B with a target expected portfolio return of 12% pa.

• Stock A has an expected return of 10% pa and a standard deviation of 20% pa.
• Stock B has an expected return of 15% pa and a standard deviation of 30% pa.

The correlation coefficient between stock A and B's expected returns is 70%.

What will be the annual standard deviation of the portfolio with this 12% pa target return?

What is the correlation of a variable X with itself?

The corr(X, X) or ##\rho_{X,X}## equals:

What is the correlation of a variable X with a constant C?

The corr(X, C) or ##\rho_{X,C}## equals:

The covariance and correlation of two stocks X and Y's annual returns are calculated over a number of years. The units of the returns are in percent per annum ##(\% pa)##.

What are the units of the covariance ##(\sigma_{X,Y})## and correlation ##(\rho_{X,Y})## of returns respectively?

Hint: Visit Wikipedia to understand the difference between percentage points ##(\text{pp})## and percent ##(\%)##.

Let the standard deviation of returns for a share per month be ##\sigma_\text{monthly}##.

What is the formula for the standard deviation of the share's returns per year ##(\sigma_\text{yearly})##?

Assume that returns are independently and identically distributed (iid) so they have zero auto correlation, meaning that if the return was higher than average today, it does not indicate that the return tomorrow will be higher or lower than average.

Diversification is achieved by investing in a large amount of stocks. What type of risk is reduced by diversification?

According to the theory of the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM), total risk can be broken into two components, systematic risk and idiosyncratic risk. Which of the following events would be considered a systematic, undiversifiable event according to the theory of the CAPM?

Stock A has a beta of 0.5 and stock B has a beta of 1. Which statement is NOT correct?

Which statement is the most correct?

Assets A, B, M and ##r_f## are shown on the graphs above. Asset M is the market portfolio and ##r_f## is the risk free yield on government bonds. Which of the below statements is NOT correct?

A stock has a beta of 1.5. The market's expected total return is 10% pa and the risk free rate is 5% pa, both given as effective annual rates.

In the last 5 minutes, bad economic news was released showing a higher chance of recession. Over this time the share market fell by 1%. The risk free rate was unchanged.

What do you think was the stock's historical return over the last 5 minutes, given as an effective 5 minute rate?

A stock has a beta of 1.5. The market's expected total return is 10% pa and the risk free rate is 5% pa, both given as effective annual rates.

Over the last year, bad economic news was released showing a higher chance of recession. Over this time the share market fell by 1%. So ##r_{m} = (P_{0} - P_{-1})/P_{-1} = -0.01##, where the current time is zero and one year ago is time -1. The risk free rate was unchanged.

What do you think was the stock's historical return over the last year, given as an effective annual rate?

The CAPM can be used to find a business's expected opportunity cost of capital:

###r_i=r_f+β_i (r_m-r_f)###

What should be used as the risk free rate ##r_f##?

Which of the following statements about the weighted average cost of capital (WACC) is NOT correct?

Fundamentalists who analyse company financial reports and news announcements (but who don't have inside information) will make positive abnormal returns if:

The theory of fixed interest bond pricing is an application of the theory of Net Present Value (NPV). Also, a 'fairly priced' asset is not over- or under-priced. Buying or selling a fairly priced asset has an NPV of zero.

Considering this, which of the following statements is NOT correct?

A company advertises an investment costing $1,000 which they say is underpriced. They say that it has an expected total return of 15% pa, but a required return of only 10% pa. Assume that there are no dividend payments so the entire 15% total return is all capital return.

Assuming that the company's statements are correct, what is the NPV of buying the investment if the 15% return lasts for the next 100 years (t=0 to 100), then reverts to 10% pa after that time? Also, what is the NPV of the investment if the 15% return lasts forever?

In both cases, assume that the required return of 10% remains constant. All returns are given as effective annual rates.

The answer choices below are given in the same order (15% for 100 years, and 15% forever):

Which of the following formulas for the carrying or net amount of 'intangible assets' such as patents from the balance sheet is correct? Assume that now is time 1 and last year is time 0, and that 'IntangibleAssets' is a carrying value net of accumulated depreciation.

If a project's net present value (NPV) is zero, then its internal rate of return (IRR) will be:

The required return of a building project is 10%, given as an effective annual rate. Assume that the cash flows shown in the table are paid all at once at the given point in time.

The building firm is just about to start the project and the client has signed the contract. Initially the firm will pay $100 to the sub-contractors to carry out the work and then will receive an $11 payment from the client in one year and $121 when the project is finished in 2 years. Ignore credit risk.

But the building company is considering selling the project to a competitor at different points in time and is pondering the minimum price that they should sell it for.

Which of the below statements is NOT correct? The project is worth:

A project has the following cash flows:

What is the payback period of the project in years?

Normally cash flows are assumed to happen at the given time. But here, assume that the cash flows are received smoothly over the year. So the $500 at time 2 is actually earned smoothly from t=1 to t=2.

The below graph shows a project's net present value (NPV) against its annual discount rate.

For what discount rate or range of discount rates would you accept and commence the project?

All answer choices are given as approximations from reading off the graph.

The below graph shows a project's net present value (NPV) against its annual discount rate.

Which of the following statements is NOT correct?

You have $100,000 in the bank. The bank pays interest at 10% pa, given as an effective annual rate.

You wish to consume an equal amount now (t=0) and in one year (t=1) and have nothing left in the bank at the end (t=1).

How much can you consume at each time?

An investor owns a whole level of an old office building which is currently worth $1 million. There are three mutually exclusive projects that can be started by the investor. The office building level can be:

• Rented out to a tenant for one year at $0.1m paid immediately, and then sold for $0.99m in one year.
• Refurbished into more modern commercial office rooms at a cost of $1m now, and then sold for $2.4m when the refurbishment is finished in one year.
• Converted into residential apartments at a cost of $2m now, and then sold for $3.4m when the conversion is finished in one year.

All of the development projects have the same risk so the required return of each is 10% pa. The table below shows the estimated cash flows and internal rates of returns (IRR's).

Which project should the investor accept?

How many years will it take for an asset's price to double if the price grows by 10% pa?

How many years will it take for an asset's price to quadruple (be four times as big, say from $1 to $4) if the price grows by 15% pa?

The saying "buy low, sell high" suggests that investors should make a:

Total cash flows can be broken into income and capital cash flows. What is the name given to the income cash flow from owning shares?

An asset's total expected return over the next year is given by:

###r_\text{total} = \dfrac{c_1+p_1-p_0}{p_0} ###

Where ##p_0## is the current price, ##c_1## is the expected income in one year and ##p_1## is the expected price in one year. The total return can be split into the income return and the capital return.

Which of the following is the expected capital return?

A share was bought for $30 (at t=0) and paid its annual dividend of $6 one year later (at t=1).

Just after the dividend was paid, the share price fell to $27 (at t=1). What were the total, capital and income returns given as effective annual rates?

The choices are given in the same order:

##r_\text{total}## , ##r_\text{capital}## , ##r_\text{dividend}##.

For an asset price to double every 10 years, what must be the expected future capital return, given as an effective annual rate?

Imagine that the interest rate on your savings account was 1% per year and inflation was 2% per year.

In February 2020, the RBA cash rate was 0.75% pa and the Australian CPI inflation rate was 1.8% pa.

You currently have $100 in the bank which pays a 0.75% pa interest rate.

Apples currently cost $1 each at the shop and inflation is 1.8% pa which is the expected growth rate in the apple price.

This information is summarised in the table below, with some parts missing that correspond to the answer options. All rates are given as effective annual rates. Note that when payments are not specified as real, as in this question, they're conventionally assumed to be nominal.

Which of the following statements is NOT correct? Your:

A stock has a real expected total return of 7% pa and a real expected capital return of 2% pa.

Inflation is expected to be 2% pa. All rates are given as effective annual rates.

What is the nominal expected total return, capital return and dividend yield? The answers below are given in the same order.

Which of the following statements about cash in the form of notes and coins is NOT correct? Assume that inflation is positive.

Notes and coins:

When valuing assets using discounted cash flow (net present value) methods, it is important to consider inflation. To properly deal with inflation:

(I) Discount nominal cash flows by nominal discount rates.

(II) Discount nominal cash flows by real discount rates.

(III) Discount real cash flows by nominal discount rates.

(IV) Discount real cash flows by real discount rates.

Which of the above statements is or are correct?

How can a nominal cash flow be precisely converted into a real cash flow?

You expect a nominal payment of $100 in 5 years. The real discount rate is 10% pa and the inflation rate is 3% pa. Which of the following statements is NOT correct?

What is the present value of a real payment of $500 in 2 years? The nominal discount rate is 7% pa and the inflation rate is 4% pa.

On his 20th birthday, a man makes a resolution. He will put $30 cash under his bed at the end of every month starting from today. His birthday today is the first day of the month. So the first addition to his cash stash will be in one month. He will write in his will that when he dies the cash under the bed should be given to charity.

If the man lives for another 60 years, how much money will be under his bed if he dies just after making his last (720th) addition?

Also, what will be the real value of that cash in today's prices if inflation is expected to 2.5% pa? Assume that the inflation rate is an effective annual rate and is not expected to change.

The answers are given in the same order, the amount of money under his bed in 60 years, and the real value of that money in today's prices.

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:

Who is most in danger of being personally bankrupt? Assume that all of their businesses' assets are highly liquid and can therefore be sold immediately.

The below screenshot of Commonwealth Bank of Australia's (CBA) details were taken from the Google Finance website on 7 Nov 2014. Some information has been deliberately blanked out.

What was CBA's market capitalisation of equity?

The financing decision primarily affects which part of a business?

Business people make lots of important decisions. Which of the following is the most important long term decision?

The expression 'you have to spend money to make money' relates to which business decision?

Katya offers to pay you $10 at the end of every year for the next 5 years (t=1,2,3,4,5) if you pay her $50 now (t=0). You can borrow and lend from the bank at an interest rate of 10% pa, given as an effective annual rate. Ignore credit risk.

Your friend overheard that you need some cash and asks if you would like to borrow some money. She can lend you $5,000 now (t=0), and in return she wants you to pay her back $1,000 in two years (t=2) and every year after that for the next 5 years, so there will be 6 payments of $1,000 from t=2 to t=7 inclusive.

What is the net present value (NPV) of borrowing from your friend?

Assume that banks loan funds at interest rates of 10% pa, given as an effective annual rate.

Some countries' interest rates are so low that they're zero.

If interest rates are 0% pa and are expected to stay at that level for the foreseeable future, what is the most that you would be prepared to pay a bank now if it offered to pay you $10 at the end of every year for the next 5 years?

In other words, what is the present value of five $10 payments at time 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 if interest rates are 0% pa?

Discounted cash flow (DCF) valuation prices assets by finding the present value of the asset's future cash flows. The single cash flow, annuity, and perpetuity equations are very useful for this.

Which of the following equations is the 'perpetuity with growth' equation?

A stock is expected to pay its next dividend of $1 in one year. Future annual dividends are expected to grow by 2% pa. So the first dividend of $1 will be in one year, the year after that $1.02 (=1*(1+0.02)^1), and a year later $1.0404 (=1*(1+0.02)^2) and so on forever.

Its required total return is 10% pa. The total required return and growth rate of dividends are given as effective annual rates.

Calculate the current stock price.

A stock just paid a dividend of $1. Future annual dividends are expected to grow by 2% pa. The next dividend of $1.02 (=1*(1+0.02)^1) will be in one year, and the year after that the dividend will be $1.0404 (=1*(1+0.02)^2), and so on forever.

Its required total return is 10% pa. The total required return and growth rate of dividends are given as effective annual rates.

Calculate the current stock price.

A stock is just about to pay a dividend of $1 tonight. Future annual dividends are expected to grow by 2% pa. The next dividend of $1 will be paid tonight, and the year after that the dividend will be $1.02 (=1*(1+0.02)^1), and a year later 1.0404 (=1*(1+0.04)^2) and so on forever.

Its required total return is 10% pa. The total required return and growth rate of dividends are given as effective annual rates.

Calculate the current stock price.

For a price of $13, Carla will sell you a share paying a dividend of $1 in one year and every year after that forever. The required return of the stock is 10% pa.

For a price of $1040, Camille will sell you a share which just paid a dividend of $100, and is expected to pay dividends every year forever, growing at a rate of 5% pa.

So the next dividend will be ##100(1+0.05)^1=$105.00##, and the year after it will be ##100(1+0.05)^2=110.25## and so on.

The required return of the stock is 15% pa.

The perpetuity with growth formula, also known as the dividend discount model (DDM) or Gordon growth model, is appropriate for valuing a company's shares. ##P_0## is the current share price, ##C_1## is next year's expected dividend, ##r## is the total required return and ##g## is the expected growth rate of the dividend.

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

The below graph shows the expected future price path of the company's shares. Which of the following statements about the graph is NOT correct?

The following equation is the Dividend Discount Model, also known as the 'Gordon Growth Model' or the 'Perpetuity with growth' equation.

###P_0=\frac{d_1}{r-g}###

A stock pays dividends annually. It just paid a dividend, but the next dividend (##d_1##) will be paid in one year.

According to the DDM, what is the correct formula for the expected price of the stock in 2.5 years?

The following equation is the Dividend Discount Model, also known as the 'Gordon Growth Model' or the 'Perpetuity with growth' equation.

### P_{0} = \frac{C_1}{r_{\text{eff}} - g_{\text{eff}}} ###

What would you call the expression ## C_1/P_0 ##?

A stock will pay you a dividend of $10 tonight if you buy it today. Thereafter the annual dividend is expected to grow by 5% pa, so the next dividend after the $10 one tonight will be $10.50 in one year, then in two years it will be $11.025 and so on. The stock's required return is 10% pa.

What is the stock price today and what do you expect the stock price to be tomorrow, approximately?

A stock pays annual dividends which are expected to continue forever. It just paid a dividend of $10. The growth rate in the dividend is 2% pa. You estimate that the stock's required return is 10% pa. Both the discount rate and growth rate are given as effective annual rates. Using the dividend discount model, what will be the share price?

A stock is expected to pay the following dividends:

After year 4, the annual dividend will grow in perpetuity at 5% pa, so;

• the dividend at t=5 will be $1.15(1+0.05),
• the dividend at t=6 will be $1.15(1+0.05)^2, and so on.

The required return on the stock is 10% pa. Both the growth rate and required return are given as effective annual rates.

What will be the price of the stock in three and a half years (t = 3.5)?

The following equation is the Dividend Discount Model, also known as the 'Gordon Growth Model' or the 'Perpetuity with growth' equation.

### p_0 = \frac{d_1}{r - g} ###

Which expression is NOT equal to the expected dividend yield?

Most listed Australian companies pay dividends twice per year, the 'interim' and 'final' dividends, which are roughly 6 months apart.

You are an equities analyst trying to value the company BHP. You decide to use the Dividend Discount Model (DDM) as a starting point, so you study BHP's dividend history and you find that BHP tends to pay the same interim and final dividend each year, and that both grow by the same rate.

You expect BHP will pay a $0.55 interim dividend in six months and a $0.55 final dividend in one year. You expect each to grow by 4% next year and forever, so the interim and final dividends next year will be $0.572 each, and so on in perpetuity.

Assume BHP's cost of equity is 8% pa. All rates are quoted as nominal effective rates. The dividends are nominal cash flows and the inflation rate is 2.5% pa.

What is the current price of a BHP share?

A stock is expected to pay a dividend of $15 in one year (t=1), then $25 for 9 years after that (payments at t=2 ,3,...10), and on the 11th year (t=11) the dividend will be 2% less than at t=10, and will continue to shrink at the same rate every year after that forever. The required return of the stock is 10%. All rates are effective annual rates.

What is the price of the stock now?

Estimate the US bank JP Morgan's share price using a price earnings (PE) multiples approach with the following assumptions and figures only:

• The major US banks JP Morgan Chase (JPM), Citi Group (C) and Wells Fargo (WFC) are comparable companies;
• JP Morgan Chase's historical earnings per share (EPS) is $4.37;
• Citi Group's share price is $50.05 and historical EPS is $4.26;
• Wells Fargo's share price is $48.98 and historical EPS is $3.89.

Note: Figures sourced from Google Finance on 24 March 2014.

Estimate Microsoft's (MSFT) share price using a price earnings (PE) multiples approach with the following assumptions and figures only:

• Apple, Google and Microsoft are comparable companies,
• Apple's (AAPL) share price is $526.24 and historical EPS is $40.32.
• Google's (GOOG) share price is $1,215.65 and historical EPS is $36.23.
• Micrsoft's (MSFT) historical earnings per share (EPS) is $2.71.

Source: Google Finance 28 Feb 2014.

Which of the following statements is NOT correct? Borrowers:

Which of the following statements is NOT correct? Lenders:

A home loan company advertises an interest rate of 6% pa, payable monthly. Which of the following statements about the interest rate is NOT correct? All rates are given to four decimal places.

A semi-annual coupon bond has a yield of 3% pa. Which of the following statements about the yield is NOT correct? All rates are given to four decimal places.

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

A credit card offers an interest rate of 18% pa, compounding monthly.

Find the effective monthly rate, effective annual rate and the effective daily rate. Assume that there are 365 days in a year.

All answers are given in the same order:

### r_\text{eff monthly} , r_\text{eff yearly} , r_\text{eff daily} ###

You just signed up for a 30 year fully amortising mortgage loan with monthly payments of $2,000 per month. The interest rate is 9% pa which is not expected to change.

How much did you borrow? After 5 years, how much will be owing on the mortgage? The interest rate is still 9% and is not expected to change.

You just signed up for a 30 year fully amortising mortgage loan with monthly payments of $1,500 per month. The interest rate is 9% pa which is not expected to change.

How much did you borrow? After 10 years, how much will be owing on the mortgage? The interest rate is still 9% and is not expected to change.

You just agreed to a 30 year fully amortising mortgage loan with monthly payments of $2,500. The interest rate is 9% pa which is not expected to change.

How much did you borrow? After 10 years, how much will be owing on the mortgage? The interest rate is still 9% and is not expected to change. The below choices are given in the same order.

You want to buy an apartment priced at $300,000. You have saved a deposit of $30,000. The bank has agreed to lend you the $270,000 as an interest only loan with a term of 25 years. The interest rate is 12% pa and is not expected to change.

What will be your monthly payments? Remember that mortgage payments are paid in arrears (at the end of the month).

You just borrowed $400,000 in the form of a 25 year interest-only mortgage with monthly payments of $3,000 per month. The interest rate is 9% pa which is not expected to change.

You actually plan to pay more than the required interest payment. You plan to pay $3,300 in mortgage payments every month, which your mortgage lender allows. These extra payments will reduce the principal and the minimum interest payment required each month.

At the maturity of the mortgage, what will be the principal? That is, after the last (300th) interest payment of $3,300 in 25 years, how much will be owing on the mortgage?

You want to buy an apartment worth $300,000. You have saved a deposit of $60,000.

The bank has agreed to lend you $240,000 as an interest only mortgage loan with a term of 30 years. The interest rate is 6% pa and is not expected to change. What will be your monthly payments?

An 'interest only' loan can also be called a:

Which of the following statements is NOT correct? Bond investors:

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

A European bond paying annual coupons of 6% offers a yield of 10% pa.

Convert the yield into an effective monthly rate, an effective annual rate and an effective daily rate. Assume that there are 365 days in a year.

All answers are given in the same order:

### r_\text{eff, monthly} , r_\text{eff, yearly} , r_\text{eff, daily} ###

You want to buy an apartment priced at $500,000. You have saved a deposit of $50,000. The bank has agreed to lend you the $450,000 as an interest only loan with a term of 30 years. The interest rate is 6% pa and is not expected to change. What will be your monthly payments?

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:

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.

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.

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 two year Government bond has a face value of $100, a yield of 0.5% and a fixed coupon rate of 0.5%, paid semi-annually. What is its price?

A firm wishes to raise $10 million now. They will issue 6% pa semi-annual coupon bonds that will mature in 8 years and have a face value of $1,000 each. Bond yields are 10% pa, given as an APR compounding every 6 months, and the yield curve is flat.

How many bonds should the firm issue? All numbers are rounded up.

A 10 year Australian government bond was just issued at par with a yield of 3.9% pa. The fixed coupon payments are semi-annual. The bond has a face value of $1,000.

Six months later, just after the first coupon is paid, the yield of the bond decreases to 3.65% pa. What is the bond's new price?

Bonds X and Y are issued by the same US company. Both bonds yield 6% pa, and they have the same face value ($100), maturity, seniority, and payment frequency.

The only difference is that bond X pays coupons of 8% pa and bond Y pays coupons of 12% pa. Which of the following statements is true?

A young lady is trying to decide if she should attend university or not.

The young lady's parents say that she must attend university because otherwise all of her hard work studying and attending school during her childhood was a waste.

What's the correct way to classify this item from a capital budgeting perspective when trying to decide whether to attend university?

The hard work studying at school in her childhood should be classified as:

Why is Capital Expenditure (CapEx) subtracted in the Cash Flow From Assets (CFFA) formula?

###CFFA=NI+Depr-CapEx - \Delta NWC+IntExp###

A firm has forecast its Cash Flow From Assets (CFFA) for this year and management is worried that it is too low. Which one of the following actions will lead to a higher CFFA for this year (t=0 to 1)? Only consider cash flows this year. Do not consider cash flows after one year, or the change in the NPV of the firm. Consider each action in isolation.

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

• Achieve firm free cash flow (FFCF or CFFA) of $1m.
• Pay dividends of $1.8m
• Complete a $1.3m share buy-back.
• Spend $0.8m on new buildings without buying or selling any other fixed assets. This capital expenditure is included in the CFFA figure quoted above.

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 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?

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?

Find the cash flow from assets (CFFA) of the following project.

Note 1: The equipment will have a book value of $4m at the end of the project for tax purposes. However, the equipment is expected to fetch $0.9 million when it is sold at t=2.

Note 2: Due to the project, the firm will have to purchase $0.8m of inventory initially, which it will sell at t=1. The firm will buy another $0.8m at t=1 and sell it all again at t=2 with zero inventory left. The project will have no effect on the firm's current liabilities.

Find the project's CFFA at time zero, one and two. Answers are given in millions of dollars ($m).

A firm has a debt-to-equity ratio of 60%. What is its debt-to-assets ratio?

In the home loan market, the acronym LVR stands for Loan to Valuation Ratio. If you bought a house worth one million dollars, partly funded by an $800,000 home loan, then your LVR was 80%. The LVR is equivalent to which of the following ratios?

Use the below information to value a levered company with constant annual perpetual cash flows from assets. The next cash flow will be generated in one year from now, so a perpetuity can be used to value this firm. Both the operating and firm free cash flows are constant (but not equal to each other).

What is the value of the levered firm including interest tax shields?

There are a number of ways that assets can be depreciated. Generally the government's tax office stipulates a certain method.

But if it didn't, what would be the ideal way to depreciate an asset from the perspective of a businesses owner?

Which one of the following will decrease net income (NI) but increase cash flow from assets (CFFA) in this year for a tax-paying firm, all else remaining constant?

Remember:

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

One method for calculating a firm's free cash flow (FFCF, or CFFA) is to ignore interest expense. That is, pretend that interest expense ##(IntExp)## is zero:

The hardest and most important aspect of business project valuation is the estimation of the:

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.

Which of the following investable assets are NOT suitable for valuation using PE multiples techniques?

Estimate the Chinese bank ICBC's share price using a backward-looking price earnings (PE) multiples approach with the following assumptions and figures only. Note that the renminbi (RMB) is the Chinese currency, also known as the yuan (CNY).

• The 4 major Chinese banks ICBC, China Construction Bank (CCB), Bank of China (BOC) and Agricultural Bank of China (ABC) are comparable companies;
• ICBC 's historical earnings per share (EPS) is RMB 0.74;
• CCB's backward-looking PE ratio is 4.59;
• BOC 's backward-looking PE ratio is 4.78;
• ABC's backward-looking PE ratio is also 4.78;

Note: Figures sourced from Google Finance on 25 March 2014. Share prices are from the Shanghai stock exchange.

Which firms tend to have low forward-looking price-earnings (PE) ratios? Only consider firms with positive PE ratios.

Private equity firms are known to buy medium sized private companies operating in the same industry, merge them together into a larger company, and then sell it off in a public float (initial public offering, IPO).

If medium-sized private companies trade at PE ratios of 5 and larger listed companies trade at PE ratios of 15, what return can be achieved from this strategy?

Assume that:

• The medium-sized companies can be bought, merged and sold in an IPO instantaneously.
• There are no costs of finding, valuing, merging and restructuring the medium sized companies. Also, there is no competition to buy the medium-sized companies from other private equity firms.
• The large merged firm's earnings are the sum of the medium firms' earnings.
• The only reason for the difference in medium and large firm's PE ratios is due to the illiquidity of the medium firms' shares.
• Return is defined as: ##r_{0→1} = (p_1-p_0+c_1)/p_0## , where time zero is just before the merger and time one is just after.

Estimate the French bank Societe Generale's share price using a backward-looking price earnings (PE) multiples approach with the following assumptions and figures only. Note that EUR is the euro, the European monetary union's currency.

• The 4 major European banks Credit Agricole (ACA), Deutsche Bank AG (DBK), UniCredit (UCG) and Banco Santander (SAN) are comparable companies to Societe Generale (GLE);
• Societe Generale's (GLE's) historical earnings per share (EPS) is EUR 2.92;
• ACA's backward-looking PE ratio is 16.29 and historical EPS is EUR 0.84;
• DBK's backward-looking PE ratio is 25.01 and historical EPS is EUR 1.26;
• SAN's backward-looking PE ratio is 14.71 and historical EPS is EUR 0.47;
• UCG's backward-looking PE ratio is 15.78 and historical EPS is EUR 0.40;

Note: Figures sourced from Google Finance on 27 March 2015.

A real estate agent says that the price of a house in Sydney Australia is approximately equal to the gross weekly rent times 1000.

What type of valuation method is the real estate agent using?

Below is a graph of 10-year US treasury fixed coupon bond yields (red), inflation-indexed bond yields (green) and the 'breakeven' inflation rate (blue). Note that inflation-indexed bonds are also called treasury inflation protected securities (TIPS) in the US. In other countries they're called inflation-linked bonds (ILB's). For more information, see PIMCO's great article about inflation linked bonds here.

The 10 year breakeven inflation rate (blue) equals the:

Former Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) Governor Phil Lowe says that the RBA cash rate is the interest rate in the Australian:

Former RBA Governor Phil Lowe says that if the economy is growing very strongly, then prices might be growing too:

Former RBA Governor Phil Lowe says that when the RBA raise interest rates, homeowners' mortgage loan interest expense will be:

US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell showed the 'dot plot' of Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) members' estimated future Fed fund rates following their quarterly summary of economic projections on 15 Dec 2021. The dot plot shows that committee members intended to make monetary policy more:

US Fed Chair Jerome Powell held a news conference following the 25-26 January 2022 FOMC meeting.

Nick Timiraos reporting for The Wall Street Journal asked: "Raising rates and reducing the balance sheet both restrain the economy, both tighten monetary policy. How should we think about the relationship between the two? For example, how much passive runoff is equal to every quarter percentage point increase in your benchmark rate?"

Jerome Powell replied: "So, again, we think of the balance sheet as moving in a predictable manner, sort of in the background, and that the active tool meeting to meeting is not -- both of them, it's the federal funds rate. There are rules of thumbs. I'm reluctant to land on one of them that equate this. And there's also an element of uncertainty around the balance sheet. I think we have a much better sense, frankly, of how rate increases affect financial conditions and, hence, economic conditions. Balance sheet is still a relatively new thing for the markets and for us, so we're less certain about that." (US Fed, 2022)

When Nick Timiraos mentioned 'reducing the balance sheet', he's referring to:

A stock has a beta of 1.2. Its next dividend is expected to be $20, paid one year from now.

Dividends are expected to be paid annually and grow by 1.5% pa forever.

Treasury bonds yield 3% pa and the market portfolio's expected return is 7% pa. All returns are effective annual rates.

What is the price of the stock now?

A firm has 20 million stocks, earnings (or net income) of $100 million per annum and a 60% debt-to-equity ratio where both the debt and asset values are market values rather than book values. Similar firms have a PE ratio of 12.

Which of the below statements is NOT correct based on a PE multiples valuation?

A company increases the proportion of debt funding it uses to finance its assets by issuing bonds and using the cash to repurchase stock, leaving assets unchanged.

Ignoring the costs of financial distress, which of the following statements is NOT correct:

A new company's Firm Free Cash Flow (FFCF, same as CFFA) is forecast in the graph below.

To value the firm's assets, the terminal value needs to be calculated using the perpetuity with growth formula:

###V_{\text{terminal, }t-1} = \dfrac{FFCF_{\text{terminal, }t}}{r-g}###

Which point corresponds to the best time to calculate the terminal value?

An old company's Firm Free Cash Flow (FFCF, same as CFFA) is forecast in the graph below.

To value the firm's assets, the terminal value needs to be calculated using the perpetuity with growth formula:

###V_{\text{terminal, }t-1} = \dfrac{FFCF_{\text{terminal, }t}}{r-g}###

Which point corresponds to the best time to calculate the terminal value?

A new company's Firm Free Cash Flow (FFCF, same as CFFA) is forecast in the graph below.

To value the firm's assets, the terminal value needs to be calculated using the perpetuity with growth formula:

###V_{\text{terminal, }t-1} = \dfrac{FFCF_{\text{terminal, }t}}{r-g}###

Which point corresponds to the best time to calculate the terminal value?

Use the below information to value a levered company with constant annual perpetual cash flows from assets. The next cash flow will be generated in one year from now, so a perpetuity can be used to value this firm. Both the operating and firm free cash flows are constant (but not equal to each other).

What is the value of the levered firm including interest tax shields?

Use the below information to value a levered company with annual perpetual cash flows from assets that grow. The next cash flow will be generated in one year from now. Note that ‘k’ means kilo or 1,000. So the $30k is $30,000.

Which of the following statements is NOT correct?

Use the below information to value a mature levered company with growing annual perpetual cash flows and a constant debt-to-assets ratio. The next cash flow will be generated in one year from now, so a perpetuity can be used to value this firm. The firm's debt funding comprises annual fixed coupon bonds that all have the same seniority and coupon rate. When these bonds mature, new bonds will be re-issued, and so on in perpetuity. The yield curve is flat.

Which of the following statements is NOT correct?

Notes

1. The project will require an immediate purchase of $50k of inventory, which will all be sold at cost when the project ends. Current liabilities are negligible so they can be ignored.

Assumptions

• The debt-to-equity ratio will be kept constant throughout the life of the project. The amount of interest expense at the end of each period has been correctly calculated to maintain this constant debt-to-equity ratio. Note that interest expense is different in each year.
• Thousands are represented by 'k' (kilo).
• All cash flows occur at the start or end of the year as appropriate, not in the middle or throughout the year.
• All rates and cash flows are nominal. The inflation rate is 2% pa.
• All rates are given as effective annual rates.
• The 50% capital gains tax discount is not available since the project is undertaken by a firm, not an individual.

What is the net present value (NPV) of the project?

You just bought a house worth $1,000,000. You financed it with an $800,000 mortgage loan and a deposit of $200,000.

You estimate that:

• The house has a beta of 1;
• The mortgage loan has a beta of 0.2.

What is the beta of the equity (the $200,000 deposit) that you have in your house?

Also, if the risk free rate is 5% pa and the market portfolio's return is 10% pa, what is the expected return on equity in your house? Ignore taxes, assume that all cash flows (interest payments and rent) were paid and received at the end of the year, and all rates are effective annual rates.

Which of the following assets would you expect to have the highest required rate of return? All values are current market values.

Fill in the missing words in the following sentence:

All things remaining equal, as a firm's amount of debt funding falls, benefits of interest tax shields __________ and the costs of financial distress __________.

A firm has a debt-to-equity ratio of 25%. What is its debt-to-assets ratio?

The expression 'my word is my bond' is often used in everyday language to make a serious promise.

Why do you think this expression uses the metaphor of a bond rather than a share?

A firm has a debt-to-assets ratio of 20%. What is its debt-to-equity ratio?

The following steps outline the process of ‘negative gearing’ an investment property in Australia. Which of these steps or statements is NOT correct? To successfully achieve negative gearing on an investment property:

Last year, two friends Lev and Nolev each bought similar investment properties for $1 million. Both earned net rents of $30,000 pa over the past year. They funded their purchases in different ways:

• Lev used $200,000 of his own money and borrowed $800,000 from the bank in the form of an interest-only loan with an interest rate of 5% pa.
• Nolev used $1,000,000 of his own money, he has no mortgage loan on his property.

Both Lev and Nolev also work in high-paying jobs and are subject personal marginal tax rates of 45%.

Which of the below statements about the past year is NOT correct?

Last year, two friends Gear and Nogear invested in residential apartments. Each invested $1 million of their own money (their net wealth).

Apartments cost $1,000,000 last year and they earned net rents of $30,000 pa over the last year. Net rents are calculated as rent revenues less the costs of renting such as property maintenance, land tax and council rates. However, interest expense and personal income taxes are not deducted from net rents.

Gear and Nogear funded their purchases in different ways:

• Gear used $1,000,000 of her own money and borrowed $4,000,000 from the bank in the form of an interest-only loan with an interest rate of 5% pa to buy 5 apartments.
• Nogear used $1,000,000 of his own money to buy one apartment. He has no mortgage loan on his property.

Both Gear and Nogear also work in high-paying jobs and are subject personal marginal tax rates of 45%.

Which of the below statements about the past year is NOT correct?

An analyst is valuing a levered company whose owners insist on keeping the dollar amount of debt funding fixed. So the company cannot issue or repay its debt, its dollar value must remain constant. Any funding gaps will be met with equity.

The analyst is wondering, as he changes inputs into his valuation, such as the forecast growth rate of sales, then asset values and other things will change. This makes it hard to figure out which values can be held constant and would therefore make good model inputs, rather than outputs which vary depending on the inputs. Assume that the cost of debt (yield) remains constant and the company’s asset beta will also remain constant since any expansion (or downsize) will involve buying (or selling) more of the same assets.

Which of the following values can be assumed to stay constant when projected sales growth increases?

Investment bank Canaccord's Think Childcare (TNK) initiation of coverage states: "What's the Differentiator? TNK are operators, not consolidators - Other listed childcare companies have led highly successful consolidation strategies involving multiple arbitrage combined with scale benefits and operating efficiencies. TNK’s focus is on operating the centres to the best of their individual potentials..." (Canaccord, 2016). Multiples arbitrage involves:

Read these quotes from Adir Shiffman's 26 July 2021 article in the AFR 'Roll up, roll up and make a mint off Amazon sellers'.

"Amazon sellers outsource their warehousing and logistics to the tech giant in a model known as “fulfilled by Amazon”, or FBA. Joining FBA provides access to one of the world’s largest global warehousing operations and even a fleet of Boeing 747 cargo jets. Just as significantly, FBA sellers can much more easily qualify for Amazon’s Prime program, which guarantees free and fast shipping to members."

"Companies want to acquire and integrate a selection, or in business parlance, do a 'roll-up'."

"More than 100 companies are now racing to roll-up FBA sellers, and almost all have launched since 2017. At least a dozen of these boast war chests of more than $US100 million. The largest, Thrasio, was founded in 2018 and has raised more than $US1.7 billion. Thrasio targets businesses with high quality and differentiated products that generate $US1 to $US100 million in revenue annually" (Shiffman, 2021).

If Thrasio's total funds available to spend on the roll up is $1.7 billion, and it's buying targets at price-to-revenue multiples of 2, what's the largest number of firms with $50 million of annual revenue that it could buy?

What proportion of managers are evaluating projects correctly, based on table 8 from Meier and Tarhan's (2006) survey of corporate managers?

Table 8 footnote: The rows in this cross-tabulation show whether the firm uses a nominal or real hurdle rate, the columns indicate whether cash flows are calculated in nominal or real terms. The fractions denote the number of firms for each combination relative to the total of 123 respondents that responded to both separate survey questions.

What proportion of managers are evaluating projects correctly?

Meier and Tarhan (2006) conducted an interesting survey of corporate managers. The results are copied in Table 7 below. What proportion of managers are evaluating levered projects correctly?

The rows of the cross-tabulation indicate what the self-reported hurdle rate represents and the columns denote five different ways to calculate cash flows, (i) to (v), plus the “other” category. Each cell then displays the fraction of all 113 respondents for a given combination of what the hurdle rate represents and how the firm calculates its cash flows when evaluating a project.

The definitions of the cash flow calculations (i)-(v) are as follows:

(i) Earnings before interest and after taxes (EBIAT) + depreciation

(ii) Earnings before interest and after taxes (EBIAT) + depreciation – capital expenditures – net change in working capital

(iii) Earnings

(iv) Earnings + depreciation

(v) Earnings + depreciation – capital expenditures – net change in working capital

Assume that the WACC is after tax, the required return on unlevered equity is the WACC before tax, all projects are levered, the benefit of interest tax shields should be included in the valuation, earnings = net profit after tax (NPAT) and EBIAT = EBIT*(1-tc) which is often also called net operating profit after tax (NOPAT).

What proportion of managers are evaluating levered projects correctly?

The below graph shows the computer software company Microsoft's stock price (MSFT) at the market close on the NASDAQ on Friday 1 June 2018.

Based on the screenshot above, which of the following statements about MSFT is NOT correct? MSFT's:

Which of the following statements about Macaulay duration is NOT correct? The Macaulay 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:

Assume that the market portfolio has a duration of 15 years and an individual stock has a duration of 20 years.

What can you say about the stock's (single factor CAPM) beta with respect to the market portfolio? The stock's beta is likely to be:

Which of the following assets would have the shortest duration?

An unlevered firm cuts its dividends and re-invests in zero-NPV projects with the same risk as its existing projects. This decreases the dividend yield, but increases the firm's equity's dividend growth rate and duration, while its total required return on equity remains unchanged. The equity can be valued as a perpetuity and the duration of a perpetuity is given below:

What will be the effect on the stock's CAPM beta? Assume that there's no change in the risk free rate or market risk premium. The company's equity beta will:

Below is a table showing GMO's 2016 estimates of different assets' durations, appearing in Slater (2017).

If you were certain that interest rates would fall more than the market expects, into what asset might you allocate more funds?

Canaccord conducts a sensitivity analysis of the Israeli pharmaceutical firm InterCure's (INCR) estimated share price in figure 33 on page 30:

https://canaccordgenuity.bluematrix.com/sellside/EmailDocViewer?encrypt=a555719b-412b-4cc7-8528-505c27fb1e82&mime=PDF&co=Canaccordgenuity&id=mbottomley@cgf.com&source=libraryview&htmlToPdf=ture

Estimate the Macaulay duration of INCR's equity. The Macaulay duration is approximately:

Which of the following statements about Macaulay duration is NOT correct? The Macaulay duration:

A fixed coupon bond’s modified duration is 20 years, and yields are currently 10% pa compounded annually. Which of the following statements about the bond is NOT correct?

A fixed coupon bond’s modified duration is 10 years, and yields are currently 5% pa compounded annually. Which of the following statements about the bond is NOT correct?

Which of the following statements about bond convexity is NOT correct?

An analyst has prepared a discounted cash flow model to value a firm's share price. A sensitivity analysis data table with ‘conditional formatting’ shading is shown below. The table shows how changes in the weighted average cost of capital (WACC, left column) and terminal value growth rate (top row) affect the firm's model-estimated share price.

The base case estimates are shown in bold.

Which of the following statements is NOT correct? The model-estimated share price would normally be expected to:

In this business cycle graph shown in the RBA's article explaining recessions, how might 'output' on the y-axis be measured?

The ‘output’ y-axis amount in the business cycle chart can be measured by:

When the economy is booming (in an upswing), you tend to see:

Calculate Australia’s GDP over the 2016 calendar year using the below table:

Source: ABS 5206.0 Australian National Accounts: National Income, Expenditure and Product. Table 3. Expenditure on Gross Domestic Product (GDP), Current prices.

Over the 2016 calendar year, Australia’s GDP was:

The government spends money on:

• Goods and services such as defence, police, schools, hospitals and roads; and
• Transfer payments (also called welfare) such as the pension, dole, disability support and student support.

When calculating GDP (=C+I+G+X-M), the ‘government spending’ component (G) is supposed to include:

Below is a table showing some countries’ GDP, population and GDP per capita.

Source: "GDP and its breakdown at current prices in US Dollars" United Nations Statistics Division. December 2016.

Using this data only, which one of these countries’ citizens have the highest living standards?

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

Hyman Minsky, author of 'The Financial Instability Hypothesis' (1992), wrote:

In particular, over a protracted period of good times, capitalist economies tend to move from a financial structure dominated by hedge finance units to a structure in which there is large weight to units engaged in speculative and Ponzi finance. Furthermore, if an economy with a sizeable body of speculative financial units is in an inflationary state, and the authorities attempt to exorcise inflation by monetary constraint, then speculative units will become Ponzi units and the net worth of previously Ponzi units will quickly evaporate. Consequently, units with cash flow shortfalls will be forced to try to make position by selling out position. This is likely to lead to a collapse of asset values.

Which of the below statements explaining this quote is NOT correct?

What effect is being referred to in the following quote from the MARTIN model description?  

Economy-wide models also account for feedback between economic variables. For example, an increase in aggregate demand will encourage firms to hire more workers, which raises employment and lowers the unemployment rate. The tightening of the labour market is likely to lead to an increase in wages growth. The resulting increase in household incomes is likely to lead to an increase in consumption, further raising aggregate demand. (Ballantyne et al, 2019)

The name of the effect being referred to is:

Listen to 'Lessons and Questions from the GFC' on 6 December 2018 by RBA Deputy Governor Guy Debelle from 17:58 to 20:08 or read the below transcript:

Guy Debelle talks about the GFC and says that the Australian government’s guarantee of wholesale debt and deposits on 12 October 2008 was "introduced to facilitate the flow of credit to the real economy at a reasonable price and, in some cases, alleviate the need for asset fire sales, which have the capacity to tip markets and the economy into a worse equilibrium... The crisis very much demonstrated the critical importance of keeping the lending flowing. The lesson is that countries that did that fared better than countries that didn't. That lesson is relevant to the situation today in Australia, where there is a risk that a reduced appetite to lend will overly curtail borrowing with consequent effects for the Australian economy." (Debelle, 2019)

When assets are sold in a fire sale, there’s usually a large increase in the:

In the 1997 Asian currency crisis, the businesses most vulnerable to bankruptcy were those that:

In the below chart by Rachel and Summers (2019), the red dotted line depicts the decline in advanced economies’ (AE) equilibrium real interest rate (R*) in percentage points since the 1970’s. The authors attribute this to the factors represented by columns above and below the x-axis. The sum of these columns is given by the black line labelled 'Total response of R* in the GE (general equilibrium) models'.

Which of the below statements about this graph is NOT correct?

A man just sold a call option to his counterparty, a lady. The man has just now:

A European call option will mature in ##T## years with a strike price of ##K## dollars. The underlying asset has a price of ##S## dollars.

What is an expression for the payoff at maturity ##(f_T)## in dollars from owning (being long) the call option?

A European put option will mature in ##T## years with a strike price of ##K## dollars. The underlying asset has a price of ##S## dollars.

What is an expression for the payoff at maturity ##(f_T)## in dollars from owning (being long) the put option?

A European put option will mature in ##T## years with a strike price of ##K## dollars. The underlying asset has a price of ##S## dollars.

What is an expression for the payoff at maturity ##(f_T)## in dollars from having written (being short) the put option?

Which of the following statements about option contracts is NOT correct? For every:

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:

After doing extensive fundamental analysis of a company, you believe that their shares are overpriced and will soon fall significantly. The market believes that there will be no such fall.

Which of the following strategies is NOT a good idea, assuming that your prediction is true?

Which of the below formulas gives the payoff ##(f)## at maturity ##(T)## from being long a call option? Let the underlying asset price at maturity be ##S_T## and the exercise price be ##X_T##.

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##.

Which of the below formulas gives the payoff ##(f)## at maturity ##(T)## from being long a put option? Let the underlying asset price at maturity be ##S_T## and the exercise price be ##X_T##.

Which one of the below option and futures contracts gives the possibility of potentially unlimited gains?

A trader buys one crude oil European style call option contract on the CME expiring in one year with an exercise price of $44 per barrel for a price of $6.64. The crude oil spot price is $40.33. If the trader doesn’t close out her contract before maturity, then at maturity she will have the:

Which of the below formulas gives the profit ##(\pi)## from being long a call option? Let the underlying asset price at maturity be ##S_T##, the exercise price be ##X_T## and the option price be ##f_{LC,0}##. Note that ##S_T##, ##X_T## and ##f_{LC,0}## are all positive numbers.

Which of the below formulas gives the profit ##(\pi)## from being short a call option? Let the underlying asset price at maturity be ##S_T##, the exercise price be ##X_T## and the option price be ##f_{LC,0}##. Note that ##S_T##, ##X_T## and ##f_{LC,0}## are all positive numbers.

Which of the below formulas gives the profit ##(\pi)## from being long a put option? Let the underlying asset price at maturity be ##S_T##, the exercise price be ##X_T## and the option price be ##f_{LP,0}##. Note that ##S_T##, ##X_T## and ##f_{LP,0}## are all positive numbers.

Which of the below formulas gives the profit ##(\pi)## from being short a put option? Let the underlying asset price at maturity be ##S_T##, the exercise price be ##X_T## and the option price be ##f_{LP,0}##. Note that ##S_T##, ##X_T## and ##f_{LP,0}## are all positive numbers.

A trader sells one crude oil European style call option contract on the CME expiring in one year with an exercise price of $44 per barrel for a price of $6.64. The crude oil spot price is $40.33. If the trader doesn’t close out her contract before maturity, then at maturity she will have the:

A trader buys one crude oil European style put option contract on the CME expiring in one year with an exercise price of $44 per barrel for a price of $6.64. The crude oil spot price is $40.33. If the trader doesn’t close out her contract before maturity, then at maturity she will have the:

A trader just bought a European style put option on CBA stock. The current option premium is $2, the exercise price is $75, the option matures in one year and the spot CBA stock price is $74.

Which of the following statements is NOT correct?

Which of the following statements about European call options on non-dividend paying stocks is NOT correct?

A company runs a number of slaughterhouses which supply hamburger meat to McDonalds. The company is afraid that live cattle prices will increase over the next year, even though there is widespread belief in the market that they will be stable. What can the company do to hedge against the risk of increasing live cattle prices? Which statement(s) are correct?

(i) buy call options on live cattle.

(ii) buy put options on live cattle.

(iii) sell call options on live cattle.

Select the most correct response:

You have just sold an 'in the money' 6 month European put option on the mining company BHP at an exercise price of $40 for a premium of $3.

Which of the following statements best describes your situation?

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

A stock, a call, a put and a bond are available to trade. The call and put options' underlying asset is the stock they and have the same strike prices, ##K_T##.

Being long the call and short the stock is equivalent to being:

Acquirer firm plans to launch a takeover of Target firm. The deal is expected to create a present value of synergies totaling $2 million. A scrip offer will be made that pays the fair price for the target's shares plus 70% of the total synergy value.

Ignore transaction costs and fees. Assume that the firms' debt and equity are fairly priced, and that each firms' debts' risk, yield and values remain constant. The acquisition is planned to occur immediately, so ignore the time value of money.

Calculate the merged firm's share price and total number of shares after the takeover has been completed.

Acquirer firm plans to launch a takeover of Target firm. The deal is expected to create a present value of synergies totaling $105 million. A 40% scrip and 60% cash offer will be made that pays the fair price for the target's shares plus 75% of the total synergy value. The cash will be paid out of the firm's cash holdings, no new debt or equity will be raised.

Ignore transaction costs and fees. Assume that the firms' debt and equity are fairly priced, and that each firms' debts' risk, yield and values remain constant. The acquisition is planned to occur immediately, so ignore the time value of money.

Calculate the merged firm's share price and total number of shares after the takeover has been completed.

A one year European-style put option has a strike price of $4. The option's underlying stock pays no dividends and currently trades at $5. The risk-free interest rate is 10% pa continuously compounded. Use a single step binomial tree to calculate the option price, assuming that the price could rise to $8 ##(u = 1.6)## or fall to $3.125 ##(d = 1/1.6)## in one year. The put option price now is:

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:

Which of the following quantities from the Black-Scholes-Merton option pricing formula gives the Delta of a European put option?

Which of the following quantities from the Black-Scholes-Merton option pricing formula gives the risk-neutral probability that a European call option will be exercised?

In an initial public offering (IPO), a:

When does the ‘principal-agent problem’ occur? Is it when:

I. The principal has conflicting incentives (moral hazard);

II. The agent has conflicting incentives (moral hazard);

III. The principal has incomplete information about the agent (asymmetric information); or

IV. The agent has incomplete information about the principal (asymmetric information)?

The principal-agent problem occurs when the following statements are true:

A teacher fills up a large jar with coins. The jar is auctioned among a large class of wealthy accounting students who have never studied economics or finance.

The auction is conducted in the English style, which is as an open-outcry ascending auction. This means that the winning bidder is able to bid, win and pay slightly more than the second highest bidder's private valuation, but less than their own private valuation.

The jar of coins is not allowed to be weighed by students and is filled with different-valued coins so it’s difficult to value. Therefore there is a wide distribution of bidders’ fair value estimates. Students’ bids are purely profit-driven, there is no fame to be gained by being the winner or loser.

Assume that each bidder bids up to their personal estimate of the fair value of the jar of coins without observing the number of other bidders during the auction. The winning bidder is likely to:

A company's share price fell by 20% and its number of shares rose by 25%. Assume that there are no taxes, no signalling effects and no transaction costs.

Which one of the following corporate events may have happened?

A firm wishes to raise $50 million now. They will issue 7% pa semi-annual coupon bonds that will mature in 6 years and have a face value of $100 each. Bond yields are 5% pa, given as an APR compounding every 6 months, and the yield curve is flat.

How many bonds should the firm issue?

A firm wishes to raise $30 million now. The firm's current market value of equity is $60m and the market price per share is $20. They estimate that they'll be able to issue shares in a rights issue at a subscription price of $15. Ignore the time value of money and assume that all shareholders exercise their rights. Which of the following statements is NOT correct?