Securities Exam Math: Yields, Options, Margin & Mutual Fund Calculations

What you'll build

What you will be able to do

Each lab ends with a concrete result that you build yourself and the checker confirms, cell by cell.

• Turn five bond quotes into dollar prices and current yields, then calculate yield to maturity and yield to call for a discount and a premium bond with RATE and see the exam's yield ranking appear.
• Find the T+1 settlement dates of three bond trades, count the accrued days with 30/360 and actual/actual, and calculate the accrued interest the buyer pays the seller.
• Compare a tax-free municipal bond with a taxable corporate bond for six customers in different federal brackets: tax-equivalent yield, corporate after-tax yield, the better choice for each and the break-even bracket.
• Fill in the exam's option table for long and short calls and puts, then the net premium, breakeven, max gain and max loss of a bull call, a bear put and a bull put credit spread.
• Build the profit per share at expiry of a stock bought at 48, a covered call (short 50 call) and a protective put (long 45 put) over a price grid, find the protective put's max loss and chart all three lines.
• Follow a long margin purchase of 1,000 shares (deposit, debit, equity, SMA, buying power, maintenance call price) and a short sale of 500 shares (credit balance, equity, maintenance call price).
• Calculate a fund's NAV and maximum public offering price, look up the breakpoint sales charge for four investors with rights of accumulation, and work out the POP and the number of shares each one buys.
• Find the last day to buy a stock and still get the dividend under T+1, calculate the dividend and its yield, adjust shares and price for a forward and a reverse split and value a subscription right.