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Using major periodicals such as The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, The Economist, or Bloomberg Businessweek, find a current example of operating/economic exposure. Identify the risk of your example economic exposure. Discuss the strategy the company uses to manage the exposure. If your example does not provide a strategy, recommend one. Remember to provide a URL to the example you chose.

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Jamar Ferry
Jamar FerryLv2
29 Sep 2019

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Choose a publicly traded company that interests you. If you don't know how to choose a company, think of IBM, DELL computer, Nike, Apple computer, GM, Ford, Nokia, Home Depot, and on and on. Think of the companies that make things you use everyday. Choose one from them. Part A. Go to COMPUSTAT Research Insights, Reuter�s, Thomson Financial Service, or Bloomberg Financial (E-Trade Financial Learning Center has them all) or any other financial database such as Yahoo Finance to download the historical closing prices (five years) of your company on the monthly basis (twelve data points a year). Use Microsoft Excel to chart the historical prices (like the one below) based on the monthly data. Part B. Based on the financial statements of the latest available annual report, calculate the following financial ratios using only one year data. If the ratios are not available, please explain why. For example, Citibank doesn�t have inventory because it�s a financial company. (Please use spreadsheet software (MS Excel) for this part and show your calculation) Current ratio Quick ratio Fixed assets turnover Total assets turnover Total debt to total assets Profit margin on sales Return on total assets Return on common equity Price/earnings ratio Market/book ratio The final report should include a chart of monthly stock price movements described in part A and the financial ratios in part B above. Based on the materials provided in the annual report and business news from The Wall Street Journal, as well as the financial information from any other sources, such as Datastream, Reuters, and Bloomberg Financial, explain as much as you can the movement of your stock during the last twelve months. Your report should start with a description of the business and the status of financial condition such as Line of business, Competitive positions, and Profitability History (going back five years). Do not turn in a sloppy, rapidly completed report. All papers should have a title page, a table of contents, a statement of purpose, footnotes or endnotes, or a bibliography or reference. The due date for submitting your project is the last date of the class. You will use Assignment manager to submit your project.

6. Institutional portfolios can take advantage of what is called "portfolio margining" under the rules of the CBOE and other options exchanges. What IS portfolio margining? Choose only one answer.

A. You only pay attention to the bottom margin of the portfolio.

B. Great leverage is possible, as the intercorrelations and natural offsets (or what we call in English a "wash") are taken into consideration.

C. No margin is required, because these are not individual investors.

7. What does the symbol ^VVIX mean?

A. Apple's volatility.

B. An exchange-traded (ETF) volatility fund.

C. The implied volatility of the VIX options themselves.

8. An example of purchasing a "real" option is a company's opening of a Shanghai office, in order to have the capacity to pursue business in China.

True

False

9. A hedge fund is "short" a portfolio of VIX call options. It's "theta" is $16,788 per day. This means, barring some big market or political or terrorist event, the fund's net asset value will increase by about $16,788 per day.

True

False

10. Imagine an equity-oriented state pension fund (such as the State of Maryland Pension funds). Suppose their equity portfolio is NOT identical to the S&P 500 index. Further, suppose that due to a state budget shortfall, the year's additions to the pension fund are likely to be less than actuarially sound. Thus, the fund is becoming very risk-averse. And it needs to implement this feeling by hedging. CHOOSE THE BEST ANSWER, even though there might be more than one true answer. This is actually a question about hedge ratios. A. If the equity portfolio's beta is close to 0, then they could decide to match the overall exposure, via S&P Index futures contracts, to the fund's value. That is, # of contracts times the contract multiplier times the index would approximately equal the value of the fund.

B. If the equity portfolio's beta is close to .4, then they would have a tough time using S&P 500 contracts, so they would instead use foreign exchange contracts.

C. If the equity portfolio's beta is close to 1, then they could decide to match the overall exposure, via S&P Index futures contracts, to the fund's value. That is, # of contracts times the contract multiplier times the index would approximately equal the value of the fund.

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12. Long options positions(long does not mean long-dated) have positive gamma, and short positions have negative gamma.

True

False

13. In valuing credit default swaps, one must estimate default probabilities. A start would be to obtain historical data for default rates from rating agencies such as Standard & Poor's. But a more complete risk profile, or risk prediction, limiting ourselves to the US market (US-based companies) would be to [pick only one choice, the best one, in your opinion]:

A. Also consider the risk of another earthquake in Japan.

B. Also consider the systematic risk associated with an economic downturn in the US, accompanied by a downturn in US stocks.

C. Also consider the possibility that Facebook options are trading at an implied volatility that is not as high as it should be, considering the lofty level of its P/E ratio.

14. A total return swap can be a form of financing vehicle to allow an investor to buy a specific bond, because: (there are two correct answers, you must pick two)

A. The payer (a financial institution) could agree to pay the bond's capital appreciation or depreciation, plus the interest payments, in return for receiving LIBOR plus some basis points.

B. The payer (a financial institution) could agree to receive the bond's capital appreciation or depreciation, plus the interest payments, in return for receiving LIBOR plus some basis points.

C. The payer retains ownership of the bond for the life of the contract.

Read the Background Information about FirstRate Company, below. Then, explain what the company’s treasurer should do about the draft versions of the projected financial statements and short-term cash flow forecast (prepared by him) in response to comments made by the company’s chief financial officer (CFO) in their meeting. Do not recommend specific treasury management steps, such as selling investment securities, factoring accounts receivable, reducing operating costs, or seeking alternative financing arrangements. (The background information is not sufficient to formulate such steps, nor is there enough time to implement such steps before the CFO meets with FirstRate’s banks to discuss the financial projections and cash flow forecast). It is most important that you clearly provide the reasons for your recommendations. Background Information about FirstRate Company For nearly two decades, FirstRate has been the second largest firm in its industry, maintaining market share approaching 25 percent and generating stable, if modest, sales and net income growth. Beginning in 20X1, FirstRate began to experience intensified competition from several recent entrants into its industry, including a well-capitalized firm that expanded into FirstRate’s industry by exploiting a distribution channel it developed over many years in its original line of business. FirstRate responded to this increased crowding by "competing on price." In contrast, under its historical strategy, the company positioned itself based on brand recognition, product leadership, and personalized customer service. Along with its revised pricing strategy, FirstRate liberalized its customer credit and product return policies. In response to the effects of its revised pricing strategy on the company’s operating performance, management immediately scaled back the company’s product development plans, but was initially slow to critically re-examine its cost structure. FirstRate eventually reduced staff and closed some facilities as it outsourced certain production and fulfillment activities. However, the transitional costs of implementing these changes were significant. In addition, to support its revised pricing strategy, the company expanded its advertising and promotion. While FirstRate’s new strategy yielded greater-than-historical sales growth for the company, its reported net income suffered, along with its stock price. In response to the effects of these changes on FirstRate’s financial performance and condition, its lending banks increased the collateral requirements and interest rates on their loans to the company. The CFO of FirstRate Company is preparing for a meeting at one of the banks where the company been a long-time borrower. The company’s $40 million working capital line of credit (LOC) will expire shortly. The company currently has $33.5 million in borrowings outstanding under the LOC and this balance will become due and payable in 30 days, unless the bank renews the LOC. The company’s treasurer has just completed projected financial statements and a short-term cash flow forecast for the company. In anticipation of her bank meeting, the CFO met with the treasurer to discuss the financial projection and forecast. The CFO expressed her concern that "these will fail to make a favorable impression" on the bank. She continued, "Our recent results have already brought pressure from all of our banks. It’s important that we have the banks in our corner while we implement our revised strategy." The treasurer responded, "I’ve prepared these [projections and forecasts] using our "best case" assumptions and estimates." The CFO replied cryptically, "Well, ‘sharpen your pencil’ because these are probably not going to get the job done." As the treasurer left her office, the CFO reminded him that, "We have more than a thousand employees, even more stockholders, not to mention dozens of suppliers, and our customers to take care of."

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