Free CFA Institute CFA-Level-II Exam Questions

Amie Lear, CFA, is a quantitative analyst employed by a brokerage firm. She has been assigned by her supervisor to cover a number of different equity and debt investments. One of the investments is Taylor, Inc. (Taylor), a manufacturer of a wide range of children's toys. Based on her extensive analysis, she determines that her expected return on the stock, given Taylor's risks, is 10%. In applying the capital asset pricing model (CAPM), the result is a 12% rate of return.For her analysis of the returns of Devon, Inc. (Devon), a manufacturer of high-end sports apparel, Lear intends to use the Fama-French model (FFM). Devon is a small-cap growth stock that has traded at a low market-to-book value in recent years. Lear's analysis has provided a wealth of quantitative information to consider. The return on a value-weighted market index minus the risk-free rate is 5.5%, the small-cap return premium is 3.1%, the value return premium is 2.2%, and the liquidity premium is 3.3%. The risk-free rate is 3.4%. The market, size, relative value, and liquidity betas for Devon are 0.7, -0.3, 1.4, and 1.2, respectively. In estimating the appropriate equity risk premium, Lear has chosen to use the Gordon growth model.Lear's assistant, Doug Saunders, presents her with a report on macroeconomic multifactor models that includes the following two statements:Statement 1: Business cycle risk represents the unexpected change in the difference between the return of risky corporate bonds and government bonds.Statement 2: Confidence risk represents the unexpected change in the level of real business activity.Lear is also attempting to determine the most appropriate method for determining the required return for Densmore, Inc. (Densmore), a closely held company that is considering a debt issue within the next year. The company has not previously issued debt securities to the public, relying instead on bank financing. She realizes that there are a number of models to consider, including the CAPM, multifactor models, and build-up models.Based on Lear's analysis, Taylor's stock is most likely to be:

Michelle Norris, CFA, manages assets for individual investors in the United States as well as in other countries. Norris limits the scope of her practice to equity securities traded on U .S . stock exchanges. Her partner, John Witkowski, handles any requests for international securities. Recently, one of Norris's wealthiest clients suffered a substantial decline in the value of his international portfolio. Worried that his U .S . allocation might suffer the same fate, he has asked Norris to implement a hedge on his portfolio. Norris has agreed to her client's request and is currently in the process of evaluating several futures contracts. Her primary interest is in a futures contract on a broad equity index that will expire 240 days from today. The closing price as of yesterday, January 17, for the equity index was 1,050. The expected dividends from the index yield 2% (continuously compounded annual rate). The effective annual risk-free rate is 4.0811%, and the term structure is flat. Norris decides that this equity index futures contract is the appropriate hedge for her client's portfolio and enters into the contract.Upon entering into the contract, Norris makes the following comment to her client:'You should note that since we have taken a short position in the futures contract, the price we will receive for selling the equity index in 240 days will be reduced by the convenience yield associated with having a long position in the underlying asset. If there were no cash flows associated with the underlying asset, the price would be higher. Additionally, you should note that if we had entered into a forward contract with the same terms, the contract price would most likely have been lower but we would have increased the credit risk exposure of the portfolio.'Sixty days after entering into the futures contract, the equity index reached a level of 1,015. The futures contract that Norris purchased is now trading on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange for a price of 1,035. Interest rates have not changed. After performing some calculations, Norris calls her client to let him know of an arbitrage opportunity related to his futures position. Over the phone, Norris makes the following comments to her client:'We have an excellent opportunity to earn a riskless profit by engaging in arbitrage using the equity index, risk-free assets, and futures contracts. My recommended strategy is as follows: We should sell the equity index short, buy the futures contract, and pay any dividends occurring over the life of the contract. By pursuing this strategy, we can generate profits for your portfolio without incurring any risk.'If the expected growth rate in dividends for stocks increases by 75 basis points, which of the following would benefit the most? An investor who:

Mary Andrews and Drew McClure are economists for Gasden Econometrics. Gasden provides economic consulting and forecasting services for governments, corporations and small businesses. Andrews and McClure are currently consulting for the developing country of Wakulla, which is considering imposing new regulations on its businesses.Due to increases in industrial production in the country, the demand for electricity has increased. Unfortunately the cost of electricity has increased as well, and the Wakullian government is considering regulating the electrical utility industry by limiting the amount producers can charge. The price limits would be established so that the utilities can set their own prices as long as they do not earn a return on invested capital that is higher than the average Wakullian business.The Wakullian government has also proposed stiffer environmental regulations on its firms because the level of air quality has declined in its largest cities. Andrews advises that this regulation is likely to increase production costs that will burden smaller businesses more than larger businesses, and thus can adversely affect competition within an industry. The higher production cost from the environmental regulation will ultimately be borne by consumers, she asserts.One of the concerns of the Wakullian government is that previous regulation of the economy has been ineffective. For example, when the automobile industry was required to increase the fuel efficiency of passenger vehicles, they increased the weight of some vehicles so more could be classified as trucks, instead of passenger vehicles. The trucks were not subject to the regulation and as a result, fuel efficiency actually declined in the country due to the heavier weight of trucks. McClure comments that the regulation should have been written so that the regulation would be more effective.McClure gives another example of an ineffective regulation from the automobile industry. When airbags were required in automobiles, consumers started wearing their seat belt less often and driving at higher speeds because the airbags gave them a feeling of greater safety. Consequently, driving fatalities and injuries did not decline as much as expected.Some regulation, Andrews states, is limited in effectiveness when the regulators are chosen from the industry that is regulated. For example, Andrews states that, due to the level of scientific knowledge needed, many regulatory bodies for the pharmaceutical industry are dominated by former drug company executives and scientists. She states that, according to the share-the-gains, share-the-pains theory, regulatory decisions tend to favor the drug industry because of the close relationship between the industry and the regulator.McClure adds that another example of regulatory ineffectiveness is when telephone companies go before their regulatory bodies to ask for rate increases. He states ihat according to the capture hypothesis, telephone companies will have greater economic resources and more at stake than individual consumers. As a result, the regulatory decisions tend to favor the telephone industry.The Wakullian government is considering some of the country's industries. To illustrate the potential costs and benefits of deregulation to the Wakullian government, Andrews and McClure compose a matrix of the potential consequences of deregulation. In the matrix, three scenarios of possible economic consequences are presented in Exhibit 1Regarding the statements made by Andrews and McClure on regulation in the drug industry and the telephone industry, are both statements correct?

Erich Reichmann, CFA, is a fixed-income portfolio manager with Global Investment Management. A recent increase in interest rate volatility has caused Reichmann and his assistant, Mel O'Shea, to begin investigating methods of hedging interest rate risk in his fixed income portfolio.Reichmann would like to hedge the interest rate risk of one of his bonds, a floating-rate bond (indexed to LIBOR). O'Shea recommends taking a short position in a Eurodollar futures contract because the Eurodollar contract is a more effective hedging instrument than a Treasury bill futures contract.Reichmann is also analyzing the possibility of using interest rate caps and floors, as well as interest rate options and options on fixed income securities, to hedge the interest rate risk of his overall portfolio.Reichmann uses a binomial interest rate model to value 1-year and 2-year 6% floors on 1-year LIBOR, both based on $30 million principal value with annual payments. He values the 1-year floor at $90,000 and the 2-year floor at $285,000.Reichmann has also heard about using interest rate collars to hedge interest rate risk, but is unsure how to construct a collar.Finally, Reichmann is interested in using swaptions to hedge certain investments. He evaluates the following comments about swaptions.* If a firm anticipates floating rate exposure from issuing floating rate bonds at some future date, a payer swaption would lock in a fixed rate and provide floating-rate payments for the loan. It would be exercised if the yield curve shifted down.* Swaptions can be used to speculate on changes in interest rates. The investor would buy a receiver swaption if he expects rates to fall.What would be the most appropriate way for Reichmann to construct an interest rate collar to hedge the fixed-rate portion of the portfolio using the 2-year 6% floor and a 2-year 12?p?

Susan Foley, CFA, is Chief Investment Officer of Federated Investment Management Co. (FIMCO), a large investment management firm that includes a family of mutual funds as well as individually managed accounts. The individually managed accounts include individuals, personal trusts, and employee benefit plans. In the past few months, Foley has encountered a couple of problems.The Tasty IPOMost portfolio managers of FIMCO have not participated in the initial public offering (IPO) market in recent years. However, recent changes to the compensation calculation at FIMCO have tied manager bonuses to portfolio performance. The changes were outlined in a letter that was sent out to clients and prospects shortly before the new bonus structure took effect. Carl Lee, CFA, is one portfolio manager who believes that investing in IPOs may add to his client's equity performance and, in turn, increase his bonus. While Lee's individual clients have done quite well this year, his employee benefit plans have suffered as a result of limited exposure to the strongest performing sector of the market. Lee has placed an order for all employee benefit plans to receive an allocation of the Tasty Doughnut IPO. Tasty is an over-subscribed IPO that Lee knew would make money for his clients. When he placed the order, Lee's assistant reminded him that one pension plan. Ultra Airlines, was explicitly prohibited from investing in IPOs in its investment policy statement, due to the under-funded status of the pension plan. Lee responded that the Tasty IPO would never actually be owned in Ultra's account, because he would sell the IPO stock before the end of the day and realize a profit before the position ever hit the books.Another manager, Franz Mason, CFA, who manages accounts for about 150 individuals, is also interested in the Tasty IPO. Mason visits Lee's portfolio assistant and quizzes him about Lee's participation in the Tasty deal. Mason is sure that Lee would not have bought into Tasty unless he had done his homework. Mason places an order for 10,000 shares of the IPO. Mason returns to his desk and begins to allocate the IPO shares among his clients. Mason divides his client base into two groups: clients who are income-oriented and clients who arc capital gains-oriented. Mason believes those clients that are income-oriented are fairly risk averse and could not replace lost capital if the Tasty Doughnut deal lost money. Mason believes the capital gains-oriented accounts arc better able to withstand the potential loss associated with the Tasty IPO. Accordingly, Mason allocates his 10,000 share order of the Tasty IPO strictly to his capital appreciation clients using a pro rata allocation based on the size of the assets under management in each account.FIMCO Income Fund (FIF)Over the past three years, the FIF, with $5 billion in assets, has been the company's best performing mutual fund. Jane Ryan, CFA, managed the FIF for seven years, but resigned one year ago to start her own hedge fund. Under Ryan, the FIF invested in large cap stocks with reliable dividends. The fund's prospectus specifies that FIF will invest only in stocks that have paid a dividend for at least two quarters, and have a market capitalization in excess of $2.5 billion. Foley appointed FIMCO's next best manager (based on 5-year performance numbers) Steve Parsons, CFA, to replace Ryan. Parsons had been a very successful manager of the FIMCO Opportunity Fund, which specialized in small capitalization stocks. Six months after Parsons took over the helm at FIF. the portfolio had changed. The average market capitalization of FIF's holdings was $12.8 billion, as opposed to $21 billion a year ago. Over the same period, the average dividend yield on the portfolio had fallen from 3.8% to 3.1%. The performance of the FIF lagged its peer group for the first time in three years. In response to the lagging performance, Parsons purchased five stocks six months ago. Parsons bought all five stocks, none of which paid a dividend at the time of purchase, in anticipation that each company was likely to initiate dividends in the near future. So far, four of the stocks have initiated dividend payments, and their performance has benefited as a result. The fifth stock did not initiate a dividend, and Parsons sold the position last week. Largely due to the addition of the five new stocks, the FIF's performance has led its peer group over the past six months.Before leaving FIMCO, Ryan had told Foley that above-average returns from both the management and client side could be gained from entering into the risk-arbitrage hedge fund market. Ryan had tried to convince FIMCO management to enter the risk-arbitrage market, but the firm determined that no one had the experience or research capability to run a risk-arbitrage operation. As a result, Ryan started the Plasma Fund LLC one month after leaving FIMCO. Foley remembers seeing Ryan at the annual FIMCO client dinner parly (before she left the firm) discussing the profits to be made from risk-arbitrage investing with several large FIF shareholders. Ryan mentioned that she would be opening the Plasma Fund to these FIMCO clients, several of whom made substantial investments in the first months of Plasma Fund's life. After Ryan resigned and left her office, Foley performed an inventory of firm assets signed out to Ryan. One of the copies of the proprietary stock selection software packages, FIMCO-SelectStock, assigned to Ryan was missing along with several of the SelectStock operating manuals. When Foley contacts Ryan about the missing software and manuals, Ryan states that the reason she took the SelectStock software was that it was an out of date version that FIMCO's information technology staff had urged all managers to discard.Has there been any violation of CFA Institute Standards of Professional Conduct relating to either the change in the average holdings of the FIF during the first six months of Parsons's leadership, or in Parsons's subsequent investment in the non-dividend paying stocks?