Suppose the S&P 500 index is currently 950 and the initial margin is 10%. You wish to enter into 10 S&P 500 futures contracts. a. What is the notional value of your position? What is the margin? b. Suppose you earn a continuously compounded rate of 6% on your margin balance, your position is marked to market weekly, and the maintenance margin is 80% of the initial margin. What is the greatest S&P 500 index futures price 1 week from today at which you will receive a margin call?

Aproduction line has three machines a, b, and c, with reliabilities of .96, .86, and .85, respectively. the machines are arranged so that if one breaks down, the others must shut down. engineers are weighing two alternative designs for increasing the line’s reliability. plan 1 involves adding an identical backup line, and plan 2 involves providing a backup for each machine. in either case, three machines (a, b, and c) would be used with reliabilities equal to the original three. a. compute overall system reliability under plan 1. (round your intermediate calculations and final answer to 4 decimal places.) reliability b. compute overall system reliability under plan 2. (round your intermediate calculations and final answer to 4 decimal places.) reliability c. which plan will provide the higher reliability? plan2plan1

Heather has been an active participant in a defined benefit plan for 19 years. during her last 6 years of employment, heather earned $42,000, $48,000, $56,000, $80,000, $89,000, and $108,000, respectively (representing her highest-income years). calculate heather’s maximum allowable benefits from her qualified plan (assume that there are fewer than 100 participants). assume that heather’s average compensation for her three highest years is $199,700. calculate her maximum allowable benefits.

Which of the following is one of the main causes of inflation? a. wages drop so workers have to spend a higher percentage of income on necessities. b. demand drops and forces producers to charge more to meet their costs. c. rising unemployment cuts into national income. d. consumers demand goods faster than they can be supplied.