For accrued interest calculations, the calculator must be clear on the use of day count conventions.
Accrued interest is calculated as follows:
AI = P x IR x T
where
AI = accrued interest
P = principal
IR = interest rate, annualised
T = fraction of the year
The fraction of the year is calculated as follows:
actual/360, Each month is treated normally and the year is assumed to be 360 days e.g. in a period from February 1, 2005 to April 1, 2005 T is considered to be 59 days divided by 360.
30/360, Each month is treated as having 30 days, so a period from February 1, 2005 to April 1, 2005 is considered to be 60 days. The year is considered to have 360 days. This convention is frequently chosen for ease of calculation: the payments tend to be regular and at predictable amounts.
actual/365, Each month is treated normally, and the year is assumed to have 365 days, regardless of leap year status. For example, a period from February 1, 2005 to April 1, 2005 is considered to be 59 days. This convention results in periods having slightly different lengths.
actual/actual (ACT/ACT), Each month is treated normally, and the year has the usual number of days. For example, [...]
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The culture in Canary Wharf is a bit interesting. Everyone heads down to the local watering pub after hours- and that’s where the real work gets done. The players exchange the local office gossip, make contact with other folks without having to go through the dreaded Office calendar scheduler (ugh) …
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The strongest version of the Efficient Market Hypothesis states that all information is already reflected in the current stock prices. A consequence of this is that even inside information is useless. Visualize:
Two efficient market theorists walking down the street. They spot a hundred dollar bill on the sidewalk and pass it by- reasoning that if it were real, it would have been picked up already.
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For once, the bank
sidestepped a crisis;
now, a China venture
By RANDALL SMITH and NIKHIL DEOGUN
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL ASIA
December 13, 2007
IT HAS ALMOST become a maxim on Wall Street: When markets implode, the debris will crash down on top of Credit Suisse Group. From the “burning bed” bridge loan in 1989 to the Russian ruble collapse in 1998 to the dot-com stock bust of 2000, Credit Suisse and its former First Boston securities unit made millions of dollars during the boom only to lose all or most of it in the bust.
So when Credit Suisse Chairman Walter Kielholz and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. chief Lloyd Blankfein, met over breakfast recently and noted their firms’ sidestepping of the subprime-mortgage crisis, it was an auspicious moment for the Swiss bank.
Credit Suisse’s success is even sweeter because its hometown rival, UBS AG, is the one with the big problems. UBS, normally the more staid of the two Swiss giants, has ousted two top executives, taken $14.2 billion in write-downs and losses and was forced to get an infusion of capital from investors in Singapore and the Middle East.
While far from immune from the turmoil in the credit markets, Credit Suisse has largely escaped the [...]
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