First, I want you to think about your retirement portfolio, and make a contribution to discussion based on the following questions:

• Is it easy or difficult to estimate the risk of your overall portfolio? Have you calculated the standard deviation of your investment portfolio?
• Without giving details of your exact allocation, do you own now more stocks than bonds? How frequent do you adjust (rebalance) your portfolio? If you were going to make some changes now, do you think you need to increase your allocation to bonds? Stocks? Riskier securities or safer ones?
• Do you buy directly stocks or you invest in mutual funds? Index or active mutual funds? An index fund is a fund whose return depends on an index (i.e. S&P 500). An active fund's allocation is decided by a manager that decides what to buy or sale.

1.Find the following values, using the equations, and then work the problems using a financial calculator to check your answers. Disregard rounding differences. (Hint: If you are using a financial calculator, you can enter the known values and then press the appropriate key to find the unknown variable. Then, without clearing the TVM register, you can "override" the variable that changes by simply entering a new value for it and then pressing the key for the unknown variable to obtain the second answer. This procedure can be used in parts b and d, and in many other situations, to see how changes in input variables affect the output variable.)

a. An initial $400 compounded for 1 year at 8.8%. Round your answers to the nearest cent.
$  
b.An initial $400 compounded for 2 years at 8.8%. Round your answers to the nearest cent.
$  
c.The present value of $400 due in 1 year at a discount rate of 8.8%. Round your answers to the nearest cent.
$  

d..The present value of $400 due in 2 years at a discount rate of 8.8%. Round your answers to the nearest cent.
$  

2. Find the future value of the following annuities. The first payment in these annuities is made at the end of Year 1, so they are ordinary annuities. Round your answers to the nearest cent. (Notes: If you are using a financial calculator, you can enter the known values and then press the appropriate key to find the unknown variable. Then, without clearing the TVM register, you can "override" the variable that changes by simply entering a new value for it and then pressing the key for the unknown variable to obtain the second answer. This procedure can be used in many situations, to see how changes in input variables affect the output variable. Also, note that you can leave values in the TVM register, switch to Begin Mode, press FV, and find the FV of the annuity due.)

a $200 per year for 10 years at 8%.
$  
b. $100 per year for 5 years at 4%.
$  
c. $200 per year for 5 years at 0%.
$  

Now rework parts a, b, and c assuming that payments are made at the beginning of each year; that is, they are annuities due.

d. $200 per year for 10 years at 8%.
$  
e. $100 per year for 5 years at 4%.
$  
f. $200 per year for 5 years at 0%.
$  

You are long 24 gold futures contracts, established at an initial settle price of $864 per ounce, where each contract represents 100 troy ounces. Your initial margin to establish the position is $12,000 per contract, and the maintenance margin is $11,200 per contract. Over the subsequent four trading days, gold settles at $853, $849, $859, and $869, respectively. Compute the balance in your margin account at the end of each of the four trading days, and compute your total profit or loss at the end of the trading period. Assume that a margin call requires you to fund your account back to the initial margin requirement. (Input all amounts as positive values. Leave no cells blank - be certain to enter "0" wherever required. Omit the "$" sign in your response.)

In the new environment, which two of Porter's five forces are critical to NYT?

Analyze them, and suggest what NYT must do to manage those forces.

Use the following set of cash flows for the questions below:

           
2.

1. Using the cash flows in Table A, determine the present value of the cash flow stream at the following discount rates: 3%, 8%, 12%, 18%, and 22%. (Use a data table to complete these calculations. (please show how to do in excel, having a hard time figuring out how to use the data table to find answers.)

Compare and contrast the process of compounding to determine future values and the process of discounting to determine present values.

Suppose the 180-day S&P 500 futures price is 1,407.32, while the cash price is 1,389.43. What is the implied dividend yield on the S&P 500 if the risk free interest rate is 4.6 percent? (Round your answer to 2 decimal places. Omit the "%" sign in your response.)

Josh Hamilton is thinking about borrowing $15,000 from his bank. The bank could use add-on rates of 4.5% for 3 years, 5% for 4 years, and 6% for 5 years.

1. calculate the finance charge and monthly payment for these 3 options.

Rodriguez began reviewing a proposal for a new hiking shoe being considered. The hiking shoe would be named
Persistence. The hiking and active walking sector was one of the fastest growing areas of the
footwear industry and one they had not yet entered. The business case for the hiking shoe needed some work; but after preliminary analysis, she focused on the following information:

1. The life of the Persistence project would be only three years, given the steep
technological learning curve for this new product line.
2. The wholesale price of Persistence (net to New Balance) would be $90.00.
3. The hiking segment of the athletic shoe market was projected to reach $350 million
during 2013, and it was growing at a rate of 15% per year. New Balance’s market
share projections for Persistence were: 2013, 15%; 2014, 18%; and 2015, 20%.
4. The firm would be able to use an idle section of one of its factories to produce the hiking shoe. A cost accountant estimated that, according to the square footage in the factory, this section’s overhead allocation would amount to $1.8 million per year. The firm would still incur these costs if the product were not undertaken. In addition, this section would remain idle for the life of the project if the Persistence project were not undertaken.
5. The firm must purchase manufacturing equipment costing $8 million. The equipment fell into the five-year MACRS depreciation category. Depreciation percentages for the first three years respectively were: 20%, 32%, and 19%. The cash outlay would be at Time 0, and depreciation would start in 2013. Analysts estimated the equipment could be sold for book value at the end of the project’s life.
6. Inventory and accounts receivable would increase by $25 million at Time 0 and would be recovered at the end of the project (2015). The accounts payable balance was projected to increase by $10 million at Time 0 and would also be recovered at the end of the project.
7. Because the firm had not yet entered the hiking shoe market, introduction of this product was not expected to impact sales of the firm’s other shoe lines.
8. Variable costs of producing the shoe were expected to be 38% of the shoe's sales.
9. General and administrative expenses for Persistence would be 12% of revenue in 2013. This would drop to 10% in 2014 and 8% in 2015.
10. The product would not have a celebrity endorser. Advertising and promotion costs would initially be $3 million in 2013, then $2 million in both 2014 and 2015.
11. The company's federal plus state marginal tax rate was 40%.
12. In order to begin immediate production of Persistence, the design technology and the manufacturing specifications for a new hiking shoe would be purchased from an outside source for $50 million. This outlay was to take place immediately and be expensed immediately for tax purposes.

13. Annual interest costs on the debt for this project would be $600,000. In addition, Rodriguez estimated the cost of capital for the hiking shoe would be 14%.

What is the project’s initial (year 0) investment outlay?

What are the project’s free cash flows for each year?

What is the change in Net Working Capital (year 0)?

A 4.30 percent coupon municipal bond has 15 years left to maturity and has a price quote of 97.85. The bond can be called in four years. The call premium is one year of coupon payments. (Assume interest payments are semiannual and a par value of $5,000.)

a) Compute the bond’s current yield.

b) Compute the yield to maturity.

c) Compute the taxable equivalent yield (for an investor in the 30 percent marginal tax bracket).

d) Compute the yield to call.

Round your final answer to two decimal places.

A fund manager has a portfolio worth $200 million with a beta against the S&P 500 of 1.2. The manager is concerned about the performance of the market over the next 2 months and plans to use 3-month futures contracts on the S&P 500 to hedge the risk. The current 3-month futures price is 2500 and one contract is written on 250 times the index. The risk free rate is 4% per annum and the dividend yield on the index is 2% per annum. The spot S&P 500 index is 2480. Given the information

Calculate the effect of the hedging strategy on the fund manager’s returns if the index spot price in 2 months is 2000, 2350 and 2700. Assume that the then 1-month S&P 500 futures price is equal to 1.005 times the corresponding index spot price at this time. Assume that the expected rate of return on the unhedged portfolio is given by the Capital Asset Pricing Model.

You are the finance manager of a company and currently your company has $100 million in cash that will not be needed for a few more weeks. You are thinking about arbitrage opportunities using Euro and GBP in order to put the cash reserves into use and hopefully earn more money for your company. You have to make a decision about details of your arbitrage with regard to which currency to buy in which order. Check exchange rates, find current rates for USD, Euro, and GBP, and share the details of your arbitrage plan with your CEO. Is it poosible to find an arbitrage trade to generate some profits (assume you will have no trading costs)? If so, what should be the order of your transactions in order to make a profit from this arbitrage operations?

I received a response stating "need enough knowledge" and about "exchange rates". I am not sure what that means, please elaborate instead of 2-3 word responses.

A project has the following cash flows. Assume an interest rate of 18%. What is the Equivalent Annual Annuity (EAA)?

Mr. Sam Golff desires to invest a portion of his assets in rental property. He has narrowed his choices down to two apartment complexes, Palmer Heights and Crenshaw Village. After conferring with the present owners, Mr. Golff has developed the following estimates of the cash flows for these properties.
    

a. Find the expected cash flow from each apartment complex. (Enter your answers in thousands (e.g, $10,000 should be enter as "10").)
  

  
b. What is the coefficient of variation for each apartment complex? (Do not round intermediate calculations. Round your answers to 3 decimal places.)
  

  
c. Which apartment complex has more risk?