Investments Flashcards
What are the Two Forms of Underwriting?
Best Efforts & Firm Commitment
What is Best Efforts Underwriting?
The underwriter sells as much of the offering as possible and the company bears the risk
What is Firm Commitment Underwriting?
The underwriter buys the entire issuance and bears the risk
What is in a Prospectus?
Outlines the risks, management team, business operations, fee & expenses
What is a Red Herring?
Preliminary prospectus before SEC approval to gauge investor’s interest
What is a 10k?
Annual report of financial statements, is audited
What is a 10Q?
Quarterly report of financial statements, not audited
What is an Annual Report?
Message from the Chairman of the board summarizing the year and projecting outlook for upcoming year to shareholders
What is Liquidity?
How quickly something can be turned to cash without suffering price concession
Are Stocks, Bonds, and Mutual Funds Liquid?
No, because they could suffer price concession
What is a Market Order?
Timing and speed are more important than price, appropriate for high volume stocks
What is a Limit Order?
When you name your buy or sell price and will only accept that or better, appropriate for volatile, thinly traded stocks
What is a Stop Order?
The price hits your threshold and turns into a market order
What is a Stop-Limit or Stop-Loss Limit Order?
When you set both a stop price and a limit price, when the stop price is met, it turns to a limit order
What is Initial Margin?
The amount of equity an investor must have to enter a margin transaction. Typically 50%
What is Maintenance Margin?
The minimum amount of equity an investor can have before a margin call
How is Margin Position Determined?
Equity (FMV - loan) / FMV = Margin Position
What is the Formula for Determining a Margin call?
Loan / (1-maintenance margin)
How does Value Line Rank Stocks?
On a scale from 1 to 5. 1 being the best
How does Morningstar Rank Mutual Funds?
With 1 to 5 Stars. 5 Stars being the best
What is the Ex-Dividend Date?
Two days before the date of record
What is the Date of Record?
The day you must be a registered owner to receive the dividend. You must purchase the stock 3 days before this date to get on the records, or 1 day before the ex-dividend date
What Does the Securities Act of 1933 Do?
Regulates issuance of new securities & requires new issues are accompanied with prospectuses before purchased
What Does the Securities Act of 1934 Do?
Regulates the secondary market & created the SEC to enforce compliance with the law
What Does the Investment Company Act of 1940 Do?
Authorizes the SEC to regulate investment companies (open, closed, & UITs)
What does the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 Do?
Requires Investment Advisors to register with the SEC or State
What Does the Securities Investors Protection Act of 1970 Do?
Establishes the SIPC to protect investors for losses resulting from brokerage firm failures
What Does the Insider Trading and Securities Fraud Enforcement Act of 1988 Do?
Defines an insider as anyone with information that is not available to the public.
What are Treasury Bills?
Matures in < 1 year & denominations of $1k
What is Commercial Paper?
Short term loans between corporations. Matures in 270 days or less, no SEC registration. Denominations of $100k and are sold at a discount.
What are Bankers Acceptances?
Facilitates importing/exporting. Matures in 9 months or less. Can be held to maturity or traded.
What are Eurodollars?
Deposits in foreign banks that are denominated in US dollars
Name the Topics in an Investment Policy Statement
RRTTLLU Risk Return Taxes Timeline Liquidity Legal Unique circumstances
How is the Dow Jones Averaged?
By price weighting (averaging the prices of all the stocks)
How are the S&P 500, Russell 2000, Wilshire 5000, and EAFE Averaged?
Value weighted (market cap incorporated into the average)
What are the Effects of Overconfidence?
Increased risk taking & over trading
What is Hindsight Bias?
When an investor believes they had predicted an event that they hadn’t. Client may have hindsight bias and be upset their advisor didn’t anticipate events the client “knew” where coming.
What is Anchoring?
Investor’s inability to objectively analyze new information. They are “anchored” to the first information they analyzed.
What is Belief Perseverance?
People are unlikely to change their views and 1) are reluctant to search for contradicting evidence, and 2) are skeptical of contradicting evidence if they are faced with it
What are the Effects of Regret Avoidance?
Selling winners too soon & Holding onto losers too long
What does Herd Mentality Lead to?
Buying high and selling low
What is Loss Aversion?
Investors prefer avoiding losses more than experiencing gains (avoiding selling a losing investment in hopes it will turn around)
What is Representativeness?
Thinking that a good company is also a good investment without analyzing the investment
What are the distances for 1, 2, & 3 Standard Deviations from the Average?
1 = 68% 2 = 95% 3 = 99%
How is Standard Deviation Calculated on a 12C?
Return of Years 1-5 = 10%, 13%, 8%, -2%, 14%
Enter: 10 E+, 13 E+, 8 E+, 2 CHS E+, 14 E+, g s
= 6.39
How is Expected Return Calculated Based on Probable Returns?
Multiply the returns by their probabilities, then sum them together. (Probability of 5% return is 80% and probability of a 10% return is 50%: 5 x .8 [4%] plus 10 x .5 [5%] = 9% Expected Return)
What is the Coefficient of Variation?
A measures of the amount of risk for every unit of return received by dividing the SD into the average return. (SD / average return)
What is Kurtosis?
The variation of returns on a distribution curve
What is Leptokurtic?
The distribution curve has a high peak and fat tails
What is Platykurtic?
The distribution curve has a low peak and thin tails
What is Covariance?
The measure of how two securities are related to each other.
When do the benefits of Diversification Begin Measured by the Correlation Coefficient?
When the Correlation Coefficient is less than 1
What is Beta?
A measure of systematic risk. A securities volatility relative to that of the market.
What is the Easy Calculation of Beta?
Securities return / Market return = Beta
When is Beta the Appropriate Measure?
For a diversified portfolio with R squared => 70%. SD is for R2 < 70%.
What is the Coefficient of Determination, or R squared?
A measure of how much return is due to the market
How is R squared calculated?
The correlation coefficient squared
What is the Quick Way of Eliminating Answer Choices from a Portfolio SD Calculation?
Use the simple average of the SDs, anything greater than that is wrong.
What is Systematic Risk?
Market based, nondiversifiable, economy based risk
What is Unsystematic Risk?
Company specific, diversifiable, unique risk
Which Types of Risks are Systematic?
PRIME Purchasing power Reinvestment rate Interest rate Market Exchange rate
Which Types of Risks are Unsystematic?
ABCDEFG Accounting Business Country Default Executive Financial Government/Regulation
What is Purchasing Power Risk?
Inflation will erode the amounts of goods & services a dollar can buy today
What is Reinvestment Rate Risk?
The risk that an investor will be locked into rates that are lower than current rates
What is Interest Rate Risk?
The risk that interest rates will change and impact the price of equities and bonds
What is Market Risk?
Impacts all securities in the short term
What is Exchange Rate Risk?
Change in exchange rates will impact the price of international securities
What is Accounting Risk?
The risk that an auditing firm is too closely tied to the management of a company (e.g. Enron)
What is Business Risk?
Risks that are inherent of a particular industry
What is Country Risk?
Risks associated with doing business in certain countries
What is Default Risk?
The risk of a company defaulting on their debts
What is Executive Risk?
The risk associated with the moral & ethical character of the management of a company
What is Financial Risk?
The amount of leverage deployed by a firm
What is Government/Regulation Risk?
The risk of companies facing new tariffs or restrictions
What is the core of Modern Portfolio Theory?
The acceptance of a certain amount of risk for the maximum amount of expected return
What are Indifference Curves?
Illustrates the level of return an investor needs to accept certain levels of risk
What Will a Risk Averse Client’s Indifference Curves Look Like?
Steep
What will a Risk Seeking Client’s Indifference Curves Look Like?
Flat
What is an Optimal Portfolio?
The tangent point where the efficient frontier and the client’s indifference curves meet
What is the Capital Market Line?
Specifies the relationship between risk and return in all possible portfolios
What measure of risk is used by the CML?
Standard deviation
What is the Capital Asset Pricing Model?
Calculates the required rate of return using the beta of a security and the expected returns of the market
What is the Market Risk Premium?
market return - risk free rate of return
What is the Security Market Line?
CAPM defines the relationship between risk and return, the graphically plotted results make up the SML
What is the Information Ratio?
Measures the excess return and consistency provided by a fund manager relative to a benchmark
How is the Information Ratio Calculated?
(Portfolio return - Benchmark return) / SD of difference between portfolio and benchmark