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:
Question 772 interest tax shield, capital structure, leverage
A firm issues debt and uses the funds to buy back equity. Assume that there are no costs of financial distress or transactions costs. Which of the following statements about interest tax shields is NOT correct?
A firm has a debt-to-assets ratio of 20%. What is its debt-to-equity ratio?
A share was bought for $20 (at t=0) and paid its annual dividend of $3 one year later (at t=1). Just after the dividend was paid, the share price was $16 (at t=1). What was the total return, capital return and income return? Calculate your answers as effective annual rates.
The choices are given in the same order: ## r_\text{total},r_\text{capital},r_\text{income} ##.
Your 18 year old friend is considering what to do with their working life until they retire at age 65. They've sought your advice.
For simplicity, ignore taxes and assume that wages will be paid annually in arrears and will be constant (zero growth). The abbreviation 'k' (Greek kilo) means thousands, so 1k is 1000.
Let the present be time zero (t=0) and the year that you retire be time 47 (t=47).
Your friend is deciding between working as a:
- Builder's apprentice for 2 years earning $20k pa (2 payments from t=1 to t=2 inclusive), then beginning work as a builder for $90k pa (45 annual payments from t=3 to 47 inclusive);
- Retail shop salesperson for $50k pa (47 payments from t=1 to t=47 inclusive).
You estimate that the required return is 5% pa with either career, and that they're equally risky. The cashflows are shown below:
Career Choices and Cash Flows | ||
Time | Builder | Retailer |
0 | 0 | 0 |
1 | 20 | 50 |
2 | 20 | 50 |
3 | 90 | 50 |
4 | 90 | 50 |
... | ... | ... |
47 | 90 | 50 |
Which of the following statements is NOT correct? Comparing the two alternatives, being a builder compared to a retail salesperson, the:
Examine the below graphs. The first graph shows daily FX turnover in the world by both the public (government) and private sectors. The second graph 'Official Reserve Assets' shows the FX reserves of the Australian central bank, the RBA. The third graph's top panel shows the FX reserves of the Chinese central bank, the PBoC.
Assume that the AUD and USD are priced at parity so 1 AUD = 1 USD.
Which of the following statements is NOT correct?
Question 841 gross domestic product, government spending
The government spends money on:
- Goods and services such as defence, police, schools, hospitals and roads; and
- Transfer payments (also called welfare) such as the pension, dole, disability support and student support.
When calculating GDP, the ‘government spending’ component is supposed to include:
Question 922 Stutzer portfolio performance indicator, Sharpe ratio, no explanation
Stutzer’s Portfolio Performance Indicator (PPI) ranks portfolios similarly to what other performance metric, assuming that the portfolios’ continuously compounded returns (LGDR’s) are normally distributed?
Which of the following decisions relates to the current assets and current liabilities of the firm?
The required return of a project is 10%, given as an effective annual rate. Assume that the cash flows shown in the table are paid all at once at the given point in time.
What is the Net Present Value (NPV) of the project?
Project Cash Flows | |
Time (yrs) | Cash flow ($) |
0 | -100 |
1 | 0 |
2 | 121 |