Nick's Finance Interview Questions

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This section is on Finance Interview Questions...

Largely Fixed Income.

These are some of my favourite interview questions to ask in a finance interview.

If you have questions you've been asked and you want an answer, Contact ExcelExperts.com  

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1. Finance Interview Questions - 1 year Call option

For a stock, the spot price is 100, Volatility is zero and the risk free interest rate is 5%.
What's the price of the 1 year at the money call option ?

5

Only time value of money to consider.

call option

nop

FI

Where is the strike price?..Incomplete question....

ATM

"At the money"

Actuarial_Boy

price is 0 according to Black-Scholes

Actuarial_Boy

..but then again, this is not realistic since it's impossible that the volatility of the price of the share is zero.

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2. Finance Interview Questions - What is a bond ?

What is a bond ?

bond

A debt instrument issued for a period of more than one year with the purpose of raising capital by borrowing.

The Federal government, states, cities, corporations, and many other types of institutions sell bonds.

Generally, a bond is a promise to repay the principal along with interest (coupons) on a specified date (maturity). Some bonds do not pay interest, but all bonds require a repayment of principal.

When an investor buys a bond, he/she becomes a creditor of the issuer. However, the buyer does not gain any kind of ownership rights to the issuer, unlike in the case of equities.

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3. Finance Interview Questions - What is an interest rate swap ?

What is an interest rate swap ?

IRS

IRS is interest rate exchange of benefits between 2 counter parties with comparative advantage.

interest rate swap

An exchange of interest payments on a specific principal amount.

This is a counterparty agreement, and so can be standardized to the requirements of the parties involved.

An interest rate swap usually involves just two parties, but occasionally involves more.

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4. Finance Interview Questions - What is an Asset Swap ?

What is an Asset Swap ?

An exchange of two assets.

An exchange of two assets. For example, one type of asset swap is the exchange of a fixed asset, such as a Treasury Bond with fixed and guaranteed payments, for a floating asset such as an index fund, which does not have a fixed or guaranteed return. Asset swaps are done most often in order to achieve a more favorable payment stream, and typically involve debt obligations.

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5. Finance Interview Questions - Relative Value

What is a better measure of the relative value of a bond ?
.. Yield or Asset Swap Spread ?

A measurement of one

A measurement of one investment or financial instrument's value relative to another's.

For example, an investor may want to compare the financial ratios of two different stocks to determine which stock will be purchased.

The investor is determining the value of one stock relative to another.

Actuarial_boy

Yield-to-maturity

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6. Finance Interview Questions - Bond Duration

What has a higher duration, a 10y 5% coupon bond, or a 5y 10% coupon bond ?

10y 5% coupon bond

10y 5% coupon bond

Bond duration, in the

Bond duration, in the broadest sense, is the amount of time that must pass before a bond issue reaches maturity.

Within this process, close attention is paid to the actual worth of the bond as it moves toward maturity.

Calculating the value duration of a bond is relatively simple when the rate of interest applied is fixed, although determining the current value of a variable rate bond at a specific point in the maturation process is not particularly difficult.

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7. Finance Interview Questions - Interest Rate Swaps

Name as many things you can think of that might affect the price of an interest rate swap.

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8. Finance Interview Questions - Zero Coupon Bonds


Zero Coupon Bonds Question Part1:

You are a trader, and you buy a 5y Zero Coupon Bond today.

What's the accrued interest ?
What's the duration ?
Interest rates go up, do you make or lose money ?
What would you pay for it ?
How much do you make or lose if the continuously compounded zero curve shifts upwards by 1 basis point ?

A bond which pays no coupons,

A bond which pays no coupons, is sold at a deep discount to its face value, and matures at its face value.

A zero-coupon bond has the important advantage of being free of reinvestment risk, though the downside is that there is no opportunity to enjoy the effects of a rise in market interest rates.

Also, such bonds tend to be very sensitive to changes in interest rates, since there are no coupon payments to reduce the impact of interest rate changes.

In addition, markets for zero-coupon bonds are relatively illiquid.

Under U.S. tax law, the imputed interest on a zero-coupon bond is taxable as it accrues, even though there is no cash flow.

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9. Finance Interview Questions - Zero Coupon Bond Part 2


Zero Coupon Bond Question Part2:

You sell a 10 year zero coupon bond to add to your portfolio.

What happens if yield curve flattens ?
.. Do you make or lose money ?
What has higher convexity ?
How much of the 10 year zero coupon bond would you sell in order to be immune to a 1 basis point parallel shift upwards or downwards in the continuously compounded zero curve ?

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10. Finance Interview Questions - What is RISK ?


What is RISK ?

... this is a great question, and worth asking to CEOs of major investment banks cos they clearly don't understand it. I guarantee they get it wrong.

Means one or more than one

Means one or more than one future events. Were the value of those may be positive or negative (or ) in general terms low returns than expected .

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11. Finance Interview Questions - More on RISK

Name 5 types of risk a Bank might have to manage.

There are mainly three types

There are mainly three types of Risks:
1) Credit Risk
2) Operational Risk
3) Market Risk

others are

liquidity risk, interest rate ,foreign exchange risk, country risk, insolvency risk,
Off balance-sheet risk , technology risk, diversifiable and non-diversifiable risk

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12. Finance Interview Questions - What is credit risk ?


What is credit risk ?

The risk of loss of principal

The risk of loss of principal or loss of a financial reward stemming from a borrower's failure to repay a loan or otherwise meet a contractual obligation. Credit risk arises whenever a borrower is expecting to use future cash flows to pay a current debt. Investors are compensated for assuming credit risk by way of interest payments from the borrower or issuer of a debt obligation.

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13. Finance Interview Questions - Bootstrap Yield Curve


How would you Bootstrap a Yield Curve ?

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14. Finance Interview Questions - Discount Factor


What is a Discount Factor ?
Describe the shape of a Discount Factor curve.
What's the difference between a zero coupon bond price and a discount factor ?

Actuarial_Boy

Discount FActor = percentage at which you discount the estimated cash flows to calculate the NPV of an asset. Zero coupon bond price is priced at a discount when issued and matures at the par value.

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15. Finance Interview Questions - Yield Curve Risk


What's the riskiest part of the yield curve ?

Yield Curve Risk

The longer maturities are the riskiest. Here the duration /price sensitivity of interest rate instruments is greatest, and the instruments most illiquid.

Yield Curve Risk

Not necessarily longer maturities are the riskiest. If the Yield Curve is inverted ? Short Maturities could be riskier than the longer term maturities.

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16. Finance Interview Questions - Interpolation


What is Interpolation ?
What are the different ways commonly used to Interpolate ?

what is interpolation?

in FI finance, it's coming up with zero rates or par yields that are associated with certain time periods not quoted in the typical yield curve.

Typical:
3M
6M
1Y
2Y
5Y
10Y
20Y
30Y

interpolation finds rates between these time periods. can be linear, but cubic spline is the most popular.

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Here is an interesting video

Here is an interesting video on Non-Linear interpolation (more info here)

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17. Finance Interview Questions - Bond Rich / Cheap Spread


What is meant by Bond Rich / Cheap Spread ?
- How do you work out whether a bond is rich or cheap ?