Free CFA Institute CFA-Level-II Exam Actual Questions & Explanations

Sharon Foster, 56, is an executive at a large Biotech firm. Foster plans to retire in five years, to travel and spend time with her grandchildren. Foster is in excellent health, although her husband died several years ago. Foster's only significant asset is her employer's 401(k) retirement plan. Her salary is more than adequate to cover her living expenses until she retires, but she does not anticipate that she will accumulate any additional savings beyond her retirement account. The balance in her account currently is $3.2 million, but Foster estimates that by the time she retires the account will have grown to $4.5 million. She expects that her pretax living expenses, including a liberal travel budget, will be $150,000 per year, beginning when she retires. She is willing to take risk to achieve her financial goals. Her retirement account is currently invested 80% in stocks and 20% in bonds. Foster estimates her post-retirement income tax rate to be 35%, which is about the same as her current tax rate.

As she is starting to plan her retirement, Foster has turned to her longtime friend, Don Welch, CFA, who is a portfolio manager at Scientific Investments, LLC . Welch is considering three different mutual funds for Foster's account. All three are well-diversified funds of large capitalization stocks. The expected returns and standard deviations of each fund are shown below in Exhibit 1. Welch assumes a risk-free rate of return of 3.0%.

Welch believes in stock market efficiency, but he also believes that individual securities are mispriced by the market from time to time. He has recently reviewed research related to the Treynor-Black (TB) model of security selection and portfolio optimization. Welch refers to a prospectus from Fund D, which uses the TB framework in developing its portfolios. In discussing their use of the TB model, the prospectus cites an example where an active portfolio of five stocks is combined with a passive, index portfolio. The portfolio weights of the stocks are in Exhibit 2.

Welch further notes that the beta of the active portfolio is 0.90, although the standard deviation of the portfolio's returns is high. Of the five stocks shown in the portfolio, three have positive alphas, and two have negative alphas. A footnote to the sample data states that the sample assumes that the analysts* alpha forecasts are perfect.

Welch is reviewing Foster's account, together with the mutual fund data, in an attempt to develop a long-term investment plan for Foster.

In evaluating the Fund D prospectus, Welch was concerned about the large weightings of the individual securities, as well as the relatively low beta of the active portfolio. Which of the following statements best describes the effects of these large asset weights and the low beta of the active portfolio?

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William Jones, CFA, is analyzing the financial performance of two U .S . competitors in connection with a potential investment recommendation of their common stocks. He is particularly concerned about the quality of each company's financial results in 2007-2008 and in developing projections for 2009 and 2010 fiscal years.

Adams Company has been the largest company in the industry but Jefferson Inc. has grown more rapidly in recent years. Adams's net sales in 2004 were 33-1/3% higher than Jefferson but were only 18% above Jefferson in 2008. During 2008, a slowing U .S . economy led to lower domestic revenue growth for both companies. The 10-k reports showed overall sales growth of 6% for Adams in 2008 compared to 7% for 2007 and 9% in 2006. Jefferson's gross sales rose almost 12% in 2008 versus 8% in 2007 and 10% in 2006. In the past three years, Jefferson has expanded its foreign business at a faster pace than Adams. In 2008, Jefferson's growth in overseas business was particularly impressive. According to the company's 10-k report, Jefferson offered a sales incentive to overseas customers. For those customers accepting the special sales discount, Jefferson shipped products to specific warehouses in foreign ports rather than directly to those customers' facilities.

In his initial review of Adams's and Jefferson's financial statements, Jones was concerned about the quality of the growth in Jefferson's sales, considerably higher accounts receivables, and the impact of overall accruals on earnings quality. He noted that Jefferson had instituted an accounting change in 2008. The economic life for new plant and equipment investments was determined to be five years longer than for previous investments. For Adams, he noted that the higher level of inventories at the end of 2008 might be cause for concern in light of a further slowdown expected in the U .S . economy in 2009.

The accompanying table shows financial data for both companies' Form 10-k reports for 2006-2008 used by Jones for his analysis. To evaluate sales quality, he focused on trends in sales and related expenses for both companies as well as cash collections and receivables comparisons. Inventory trends relative to sales and the number of days' sales outstanding in inventory were determined for both companies. Expense trends were examined for Adams and Jefferson relative to sales growth and accrual ratios on a balance sheet and cash flow basis were developed as overall measures of earnings quality.

Jones also observed that inventory 3nd cost of goods sold comparisons showed:

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Paul Durham, CFA, is a senior manager in the structured bond department within Newton Capital Partners (NCP), an investment banking firm located in the United States. Durham has just returned from an international marketing campaign for NCP's latest structured note offering, a series of equity linked fixed-income securities or ELFS. The bonds will offer a 4.5% coupon paid annually along with the annual return on the S&P 500 Index and will have a maturity of five years. The total face value of the ELFS series is expected to be $200 million.

Susan Jacobs, a fixed-income portfolio manager and principal with Smith & Associates, has decided to include $10 million worth of ELFS in her fixed-income portfolio. At the end of the first year, however, the S&P 500 Index value is 1,054, significantly lower than the initial value of 1,112 set by NCP at the time of the ELFS offering. Jacobs is concerned that the four remaining years of the ELFS life could have similar results and is considering her alternatives to offset the equity exposure of the ELFS position without selling the bonds, Jacobs decides to offset her portfolio's exposure to the ELFS by entering into an equity swap contract. The LIBOR term structure is shown below in Exhibit 1.

After hearing of her plan, one of the other partners with Smith & Associates, Jonathan Widby, feels it is necessary to meet with Jacobs regarding her proposed strategy. Mr. Widby makes the following comments during the meeting:

"You should also know that I am quite bullish on the stock market for the near future. Therefore, as an alternative strategy, I recommend that you establish a long position in a 1 x 3 payer swaption. This strategy would allow you to wait and see how the market performs next year but will give you the ability to enter into a 2-year swap with terms that can be established today should the market have another down year.

If, however, you choose to proceed with your strategy, know that credit risk for an equity swap is greatest toward the end of the swap's life. Thus, analysts tracking your portfolio will not be happy with the added credit risk (hat your portfolio will be exposed to as the swap nears the end of its tenor. You should think about what credit derivatives you can use to manage this risk when the time comes."

To offset any credit risk associated with the equity swap, Widby recommends using an index trade strategy by entering into a credit default swap (CDS) as a protection buyer. Widby's strategy would involve purchasing credit protection on an index comprising largely the same issuers (companies) included in the equity index underlying the swap. Widby suggests the CDS should have a maturity equal to that of the swap to provide maximum credit protection.

Which of the following strategies would be most appropriate given Jacobs's situation and desire to offset the equity exposure of the ELFS position in her portfolio? Establish an equity swap as the;

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For the past 15 years, Susan Luna, CFA, Kyle Lawson, CFA, and Matt Miller. CFA, have worked together as equity analysts and then equity portfolio managers in the investment management division (BIMCO) of the Broadway Life Insurance Company. For the past five years, the three associates have worked together managing the BIMCO Aggressive Growth Fund (BAGF). During their management tenure the BAGF had excellent performance and was well recognized in the financial press.

Just over one year ago, Broadway Life was acquired by a larger company, Gobble Insurance, and as part of the consolidation process BIMCO was closed. The closure allowed Luna, Lawson and Miller to start their own investment management firm, Trio Investment Management LLC (TIM). TIM focuses on the small capitalization growth equities area. This is the same investment focus as the BAGF, but TIM will have individually managed accounts. Several cases have arisen calling for interpretation as to consistency with CFA Institute Standards of Professional Conduct.

Case 1

TIM markets its investment management services by contracting with small, local bank trust departments. One of the newest bank trust clients for TIM is Shadow Mountain Bank and Trust. Judy Sampson, CFA, the trust officer for Shadow Mountain, has scheduled a meeting with a potential client. When Lawson arrives for the client meeting, he finds that all of the TIM marketing material, including biographies of TIM portfolio managers, has been relabeled by Sampson as the Shadow Mountain Wealth Management Team. Sampson has also added the performance of BAGF into the current TIM Equity Composite Index portfolio and relabeled the resultant combined graph, the Shadow Mountain Equity Composite Index. Sampson states that making such changes would probably please clients and improve the chances of acquiring additional trust management accounts for Shadow Mountain and TIM. Lawson goes along and makes the presentation to the potential client using the Shadow Mountain marketing material and the relabeled BAGF/TIM equity performance record.

Case 2

Susan Luna of TIM is meeting with Sol Wurtzel, an institutional salesman for Turn Byer, a large national brokerage firm. Luna complains that TIM*s technology costs are too high, especially their outside software services costs. TIM currently subscribes to two investment-related software services. The first software vendor is StockCal Software Services (StockCal), which provides valuation and stock charting capabilities TIM uses in their equity research and selection process. The other vendor is Add-Invest Software (Add-Invest), a software program providing account management and performance evaluation reporting which TIM uses in developing monthly reports for all clients. In response to Luna, Wurtzel suggests that Turn Byer has an excellent soft dollar trading desk and would be willing to offer to cover TIM's StockCal and Add-Invest expenses through soft dollar commissions. Luna then reviews TIM's projected commission dollars for the year and decides there are more than enough soft dollars to pay the StockCal, AGF and Add-Invest Software bills combined. Luna believes she can be assured of excellent trade execution from Turn Byer and improved profitability for TIM because of the increased use of soft dollars. Luna then directs that the StockCal and Add-Invest software services be paid for with soft dollar or client brokerage dollars.

Case 3

Sol Wurtzel, the equity salesman for Turn Byer, has referred several clients to TIM over the past year. In fact, Wurtzel referrals currently account for almost 20% of the assets managed by TIM. The principals of TIM decide to reward Wurtzel, either by doubling the commissions paid on trades executed through Turn Byer on Wurtzel's referral accounts, or by paying Wurtzel a cash referral fee for each additional TIM account opened by a Wurtzel referral. The principals agree that any cash referral fee would need to be disclosed to clients in advance.

Case 4

Luna notes that her clients have become increasingly aware of the directed client brokerage / soft dollar commissions issue. At a recent meeting with one of her large pension clients. Service Workers Union Local #1418, the subject of directed commissions came up. Upon learning of the commission dollars available to their account, the Union trustees directed Luna to use their client brokerage of approximately $25,000 to donate to a think lank called the Hoover Study Center of Unions at Samford University. Service Workers trustees believed the Hoover study will increase the public awareness of the benefits unions offer to their members and increase union membership. Luna concurs with the trustee's judgment on increasing union enrollment as a great goal, and follows the client's instructions and makes the $25,000 contribution to the Hoover Study Center. Another client, Rosa Lutz, has asked Luna to credit the soft dollar client brokerage proceeds from her personal retirement accounts to Roswell Academy, to update their computer lab. Luna agrees that a new computer lab for Roswell Academy is greatly needed and she allocates 510,000 of Lutz's commission dollars to Roswell Academy.

Is the use of client brokerage to make the $ 10,000 contribution to the Roswell Academy a violation of the CFA Institute Standards of Professional Conduct?

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The Wyroman International Pension Fund includes a $65 million fixed-income portfolio managed by Susan Evermore, CFA, of Brighton Investors. Evermore is in the process of constructing a binomial interest-rate tree that generates arbitrage-free values for on-the-run Treasury securities. She plans to use the tree to value more complex bonds with embedded options. She starts out by observing that the yield on a one-year Treasury security is 4.0%. She determines in her initial attempt to price the two-year Treasury security that the value derived from the model is higher than the Treasury security's current market price.

After several iterations Evermore determines that the interest rate tree that correctly values the one and two-year Treasury securities has a rate of 5.0% in the lower node at the end of the first year and a rate of 7.5% in the upper node at the end of the first year. She uses this tree to value a two-year 6% coupon bond with annual coupon payments that is callable in one year at 99.50. She determines that the present value at the end of the first year of the expected value of the bond's remaining cash flows is $98.60 if the interest rate is 7.5% and $100.95 if the interest rate is 5.0%.

Note: Assume Evermore's calculations regarding the two-year 6% callable bond are correct

Evermore also uses the same interest rate tree to price a 2-year 6% coupon bond that is putable in one year, and value the embedded put option. She concludes that if the yield volatility decreases unexpectedly, the value of the putable bond will increase and the value of the embedded put option will also increase, assuming all other inputs are unchanged.

Evermore also uses the interest rate tree to estimate the option-adjusted spreads of two additional callable corporate bonds, as shown in the following figure.

Evermore concludes, based on this information, that the A A-rated issue is undervalued, and the BB-rated issue is overvalued.

At a subsequent meeting with the trustees of the fund. Evermore is asked to explain what a binomial interest rate model is and how it was used to estimate effective duration and effective convexity. Evermore is uncertain of the exact methodology because the actual calculations were done by a junior analyst, but she tries to provide the trustees with a reasonably accurate step-by-stcp description of the process:

Step 1: Given the bond's current market price, the on-the-run Treasury yield curve, and an assumption about rate volatility, create a binomial interest rate tree.

Step 2: Add 100 basis points to each of the 1-year rates in the interest rate tree to derive a "modified" tree.

Step 3: Compute the price of the bond if yield increases by 100 basis points using this new tree.

Step 4: Repeat Steps 1 through 3 to determine the bond price that results from a 100 basis point decrease in rates.

Step 5: Use these two price estimates, along with the original market price, to calculate effective duration and effective convexity.

Lucas Davenport, a trustee and university finance professor, immediately speaks up to disagree with Evermore. He claims that a more accurate description of the process is as follows:

Step 1: Given the bond's current market price, the Treasury yield curve, and an assumption about rate volatility, create a binomial interest rate tree and calculate the bond's option-adjusted spread (OAS) using the model.

Step 2: Impose a parallel upward shift in the on-the-run Treasury yield curve of 100 basis points.

Step 3: Build a new binomial interest rate tree using the new Treasury yield curve and the original rate volatility assumption.

Step 4: Add the OAS from Step I to each of the 1-year rates on the tree to derive a "modified" tree.

Step 5: Compute the price of the bond using this new tree.

Step 6: Repeat Steps 1 through 5 to determine the bond price that results from a 100 basis point decrease in rates.

Step 7: Use these two price estimates, along with the original market price, to calculate effective duration and effective convexity.

At the meeting with the trustees. Evermore also presents the results of her analysis of the effect of changing market volatilities on a 1-year convertible bond issued by Highfour Corporation. Each bond is convertible into 25 shares of Highfour common stock. The bond is also callable at 110 at any time prior to maturity. She concludes that the value of the bond will decrease if either (1) the volatility of returns on'Highfour common stock decreases or (2) yield volatility decreases.

Davenport immediately disagrees with her by saying "changes in the volatility of common stock returns will have no effect on the value of the convertible bond, and a decrease in yield volatility will result in an increase in the value of the bond."

Is Evermore correct in her analysis of the relative valuation of the bonds?

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