8013 Exam Preparation Material | PRM Exam 1: Finance Foundations

Explanation:
The existence of derivative markets actually drives liquidity out of cash markets into derivative markets. Derivative markets are far more liquid than cash markets. Therefore statement I is not correct.
In times of crises, instruments or financial products bearing greater credit risk lose liquidity rapidly. Therefore statement II is correct.
A higher bid-ask spread indicates lower liquidity, not greater liquidity. Therefore statement III is false.
Normal market size (NMS) refers the 'normal' transaction size for which a dealer's quote is valid. A higher NMS is associated with greater liquidity, therefore statement IV is correct.

Explanation:
Given covered interest parity, the currency with a lower interest rate will trade at a forward premium. Choice 'b' is the correct answer.
For an intuitive reasoning, consider a currency forward contract that matures in 3 months. The seller has agreed to sell, say JPY 1,000,000 in exchange for USD 10,000 in the future. In order to cover himself, he borrows the USD right now and converts it to JPY at spot which he puts in a JPY deposit. Assuming JPY interest rates are less than USD interest rates, he pays more on his USD borrowing than he receives on his JPY deposit. Therefore he has to price the forward contract at a premium to spot to cover the interest rate differential.

Explanation:
The square root of time rule can be used to convert, say a 1-day volatility to a 10-day volatility, by multiplying the known volatility number by the square root of time to get the volatility over a different time horizon. However, there are key assumptions that underlie the application of this rule, and statements I to III correctly state those assumptions. If serial correlations (whether negative or positive) exist, then asset returns are not independent as they are affected by the prior day or prior period's returns, and we cannot use the square root of time rule. Therefore Choice 'd' is the correct answer.
In order to use the 'square root of time' rule, asset returns should be iid, volatility should stay constant (ie there should be no volatility clustering), and no serial correlations (ie the returns of one day should not be affected by the returns of the prior periods). Choice 'd' is the correct answer.

Explanation:
This question is based upon a weather derivative contract traded on the CME in the US. For each day, 'Heating-Degree-Days' (HDD) is calculated as equal to 65 degrees Fahrenheit minus the daily average temperature. The daily average temperature is based upon the temperature reported by the Earth Satellite Corporation using a specified automated weather station. Based upon daily values of HDD, an aggregated number called the 'CME degree days index' is calculated for each contract month. In other words, the index for a particular month is just the aggregation of the 'HDD' value for each of the days of that month. Each contract settles at the end of the month at a value equal to $20 x Degree Days Index. (In a similar way, 'Cooling Degree Days' are also calculated and a futures contract offered, except that CDD is equal to the average daily temperature minus 65 degrees). (Source: CME's website at CMEGroup.com)
In the given question, we are interested in hedging against the possibility of the temperature being too low. This means we should buy the HDD futures contract (the lower the temperature, the higher the difference of the average temperature from 65 degrees, and the higher the settlement). Therefore Choice 'b' is the correct answer. The lower the actual temperature turns out to be, the higher the payout to the grower. It would not be wise to wait till January to buy the contract as by then the prices of the contract would have already risen if the grower's fears of a colder January appear to be coming true. He can hedge his exposure by immediately locking in the January prices.

Explanation:
A CDS contract provides exposure to default risk and the credit spread for a particular credit. It does not provide an exposure to the risk of interest rates going up or down. It is an instrument that allows institutions to take a view on the price of credit risk alone. Therefore statement I is false and statement II is true.
A total return swap (TRS) exchanges the return from an asset for a fixed or floating exchange rate. It is in essence a financing arrangement where one party pays the other interest to earn a return on an asset that it does not wish to hold itself, perhaps for liquidity reasons. The financed asset is held by the party paying the asset's returns, effectively creating a 'collateral'. Therefore statement III is correct.
A credit linked note is a funded instrument where the sellers of the protection have put up the money upfront in the form of a subscription to a note in case the credit losses are realized. Therefore statement IV is not correct.