Transcript Example 2.3

Financial Models
Example 12.6
A Financial Planning Model
Background Information
 General Ford (GF) Auto Corporation is trying
to determine what type of compact car to
develop.
 Each model is assumed to generate sales for
10 years.
 GF has gathered information about the
following quantities through focus groups with
the marketing and engineering departments.
Background Information -continued


Fixed cost of developing car. This cost is assumed to
be normally distributed with a $2.3 billion mean and a
standard deviation of $0.5 billion.
Variable production cost. This cost, which includes
all variable production costs required to build a single
car, is normally distributed for each model during year
1 with a mean and standard deviation of $7800 and
$600. Each year after year 1 the variable production
cost is the previous year’s multiplied by an inflation
factor. Each year this inflation factor is assumed to be
normally distributed with mean 1.05 and standard
deviation 0.015. All production costs are assumed to
occur at the ends of the respective years.
Background Information -continued


Selling price. The price in year 1 is already set at
$11,800. After year 1 the price will increase by the
same inflation factor that drives production costs. Like
production costs, revenues from sales are assumed to
occur at the ends of the respective years.
Demand. The demand for cars in year 1 is assumed to
be normally distributed with a mean of 100,000. The
standard deviation is 10,000. After year 1 the demand
in the given year is assumed to be normally distributed
with mean equal to the actual demand in the previous
year and standard deviation 10,000. An implication of
this assumption is that demands in successive years
are not probabilistically independent.
Background Information -continued


Production. In any particular year GF plans to base its
production policy on the probability distribution of
demand for that year - before the actual demand for
that year is observed. If demand in any given year is
greater than production, then the excess demand is
lost. If production in any year is greater than demand,
GF will sell the excess cars at an end-of-year discount
of 30%.
Interest rate. GF plans to use a 10% interest rate to
discount future cash flows.
 Given these assumptions, GF wants to develop a
simulation model that will evaluate its NPV (net
present value) for this new car over the 10-year time
horizon.
GFAUTO.XLS
Developing the Spreadsheet Model


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Inputs. Enter the various inputs in the shaded cell.
Production multiplier. The only real decision GF has
to make is the multiplier k for its production level. To
experiment with several values of this multiplier, enter
the formula =RISKSIMTABLE({0.8, 1, 1.2}) in cell E20.
Other (or more) values could be tried here.
Variable cost inflation factors. Rows 26-42 contain a
single 10-year simulation. The approach is to enter
appropriate formulas in column B and C for years 1
and 2, then copy the year 2 formulas to the columns for
the other years, and finally calculate the values in rows
36, 39, 40 and 42. Begin by entering the variable
production cost inflation factor relating year 2 to year 1
in cell C27 with the formula
=RISKNORMAL(InflMean,InflStdev) and copying this
to the rest of row 27.
Developing the Spreadsheet Model
-- continued


Production quantities. The production quantity in
year 1 is based on the expected demand and the
standard deviation of demand in year 1, so we enter
the formula =Dem1Mean+ProdFactor*Dem1StDev in
cell B28. For other years, the expected demand is the
previous year’s actual demand, and this is used to
calculate the production quantity. Therefore for year 2,
enter the formula =B29+ProdFactor*DemStDev in cell
C28 and copy it across to the rest of the row 28.
Demands. Generate a demand in year 1 in cell B29
with the formula
=RISKNORMAL(Dem1Mean,Dem1Stdev). As in the
previous step the expected demand for year 2 is the
actual demand for year 1. So generate demand for
year 2 in cell C29 with the formula
=RISKNORMAL(29,DemStdev), and then copy it to the
rest of row 29 to generate demands for the other years.
Developing the Spreadsheet Model
-- continued


Variable production costs. Generate the variable
production cost for year 1 in cell B30 with the formula
=RISKNORMAL(VC1Mean,VC1Stdev). Then use the
inflation factor in row 27 to generate the variable
production cost for year 2 in cell C30 with the formula
=B30*C27 and copy this across to the rest of row 30.
Selling prices. Enter the (nonrandom) selling price for
year 1 in cell B31 with the formula =Price1. Then
generate the price for year 2 in cell C31 with the
formula =B31*C27 and copy this across to the rest of
row 31.
Developing the Spreadsheet Model
-- continued


Production costs. The production cost for any year is
the production quantity multiplied by the variable
production cost, so enter the formula =B28*B30 in cell
B33 and copy it to the rest of row 33.
Revenues. The revenues in any year are calculated in
one of two possible ways. If demand is greater than
production quantity, then revenue is the sales price
multiplied by the production quantity. If demand is less
than the production quantity, then revenue is the sales
price multiplied by the demand, plus the discounted
sales price multiplied by the number of cars left over.
Therefore, calculate the revenue for year 1 in cell B34
with the formula
=IF(B28<B29,B31*B28,B31*(B29+(1-Discount)*(B28B29)))
and copy it to the rest of row 34.
Developing the Spreadsheet Model
-- continued
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Fixed cost. Generate the fixed cost of developing the
car in cell B36 with the formula
=RISKNORMAL(FCMean,FCStdev)*1000.
NPVs. Calculate the NPV of all production costs (in
millions of dollars) in cell B39 with the formula
=NPV(IntRate,Costs)
Similarly, enter the formula =NPV(IntRate,Revenues) in
cell B40 for revenues.
Total NPV. Finally calculate the total NPV in cell B42
with the formula =RISKOUTPUT( )+B40-B36-B39
Using @Risk
 Now that the spreadsheet is setup we can
use the @Risk toolbar to run the simulation.
 We set the number of iterations to 1000 and
the number of simulations to 3.
 After running @Risk, we obtain the summary
measures for the total NPV shown on the
next slide.
 We see that the multiplier k definitely makes a
difference.
@Risk Results
 Here is the summary results and simulations
statistics.
@Risk Results -- continued
 Based on these results, GF might want to experiment
with even larger values of k.
 Higher values of k mean larger production quantities.
 This will result in more end-of-year discounted sales,
but it is evidently better than lost sales from
insufficient supply.
 The corresponding histogram for k = 1.2 appears on
the next slide. It’s wide spread indicates the large
amount of uncertainty about the 10-year NPV for this
car.
@Risk Results -- continued
@Risk Results -- continued
 GF could make a lot of money, or it could lose a lot.
 We entered two representative values in the Left X
and the Right X boxes.
 They show that the probability of a negative NPV is
slightly greater than 0.22 and the probability of NPV
being less than $10 million is 0.65.
 We certainly would not discourage the company from
proceeding with this car, because there is a lot of
potential for profit, but it should also be aware of the
potential for loss.
Example 12.7
A Cash Balance Model
Background Information
 The Entson Company believes that it’s monthly sales during the
period from November 2000 to July 2001 are normally
distributed with the means and standard deviations given in the
following table.
 Each month Entson incurs fixed costs of $250,000. In March
taxes of $150,000 and in June taxes of $50,000 must be paid.
Dividends of $50,000 must also be paid in June.
Monthly Sales (in Thousands of Dollars) for Entson
Nov.
Dec.
Jan.
Feb.
Mar.
Apr.
May
Jun.
Jul
Mean
1500
1600
1800
1500
1900
2600
2400
1900
1300
St
Dev
70
75
80
80
100
125
120
90
70
Background Information -continued
 Entson estimates that its receipts in a given
month are a weighted sum of sales from the
current month, the previous month, and two
months ago with weights 0.2, 0.6, and 0.2. In
symbols, if Rt and St represent receipts and
sales in month t, then
Rt = 0.2St-2 + 0.6St-1 + 0.2St
 The materials and labor needed to produce a
month’s sales must be purchased 1 month in
advance, and the cost of these averages to
80% of the product’s sales.
Background Information -continued
 At the beginning of January, 2001, Entson has
$250,000 in cash.
 The company would like to ensure that each month’s
ending cash balance never dips below $250,000.
 This means that Entson might have to take out shortterm (1-month) loans.
 The company would like to use simulation to estimate
the maximum loan it will need to take out to meet its
desired minimum cash balance.
Background Information -continued
 It would also like to see how sensitive the
results are to the sales data.
 In particular, considering the data in the table
as a “base case”, it would like to run a
simulation in which the means are 20% below
the values in the table and another simulation
in which the means are 20% above those in
the table.
Bookkeeping
 There is a considerable amount of bookkeeping in
this simulation, so it is a good idea to list the events
in chronological order that occur each month.

Beginning cash balance is observed.

Interest on its beginning cash balance is received.

Receipts arrive and expenses are paid (including
payback of the previous month’s loan, if any, with
interest)
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Short term loan is taken out, if necessary

Final cash balance is observed, which becomes next
month’s beginning cash balance.
CASHBAL.XLS
 The inputs for this example can be found in
this file.
 The simulation model appears on the next
slide.
The Simulation Model
Developing the Spreadsheet Model
 Follow these steps to develop the spreadsheet
model:

Inputs. Enter the various inputs in the shaded cells.

Scenarios. Enter the formula
=RISKSIMTABLE(BaseLevList) in cell B26 This
allows us to run three simulations simultaneously. The
middle value, 1, corresponds to the base case. The
other two values, .8 and 1.2, correspond to the
scenarios in which mean sales are 20% below and
20% above the base case.

Actual sales. Generate the sales in row 30 by entering
the formula =RISKNORMAL(B6*BaseLev,B7) in cell
B30 and copying across.
Developing the Spreadsheet Model
-- continued



Beginning cash balance. For January 2001 enter the
cash balance with the formula =InitCash in cell D33.
Then for the other months enter the formula =D45 in
cell E33 and copy it across row 33.
Incomes. Entson’s incomes (interest on cash balances
and receipts) are calculated in row 34 and 35. To
calculate these enter the formulas =IntRateCash*D33
and =SUMPRODUCT(RecFactors,B30:D30) in cells
D34 and D35 and copy them across the rows 34 and
35.
Expenses. Enston’s expenses are calculated in rows
37-41. Calculate these by entering the forumlas =D9,
=D10, =CostPct*E30, =D44 and =D44*(IntRateLoan)
in cells D37, D38, D39 and E40, and E41 and then
copy them across the rows 37-41.
Developing the Spreadsheet Model
-- continued

Cash balance before loan. Calculate the cash
balance before the loan by entering the formula
=SUM(D33:D35)-SUM(D37:D40) in cell D43 and
copying it across row 43.

Amount of loan. If the value in row 43 is below the
minimum cash balance ($250,000), Entson must
borrow enough to bring the cash balance up to this
minimum. Otherwise no loan is necessary. Therefore,
enter the formula =MAX(MinCashBal-D43,0) in cell
D44 and copy it across row 44.

Final cash balance. Calculate the final cash balance
by entering the formula =D43+D44 in cell D45 and
copying it across row 45.
Developing the Spreadsheet Model
-- continued

Maximum loan. Calculate the maximum loan
from January to June in cell B47 with the
formula =RISKOUTPUT( )+MAX(Loans) Then
calculate the total interest paid on all loans in
cell B48 with the formula =RISKOUTPUT(
)+SUM(IntPayments).
Using @Risk
 For the settings use 1000 iterations and 3 as
the number of simulations.
 The results appear numerically in the
following figures.
Using @Risk
@Risk Results
 The data in the Results indicates that for the base
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case the maximum loan varied considerably, from a
low of $463,255 to a high of $1,446,719.
The average was $945,007.
They also show that when sales are below the base
case, the maximum loan tends to be larger.
The opposite is true when sales are above the base
case. This makes sense.
Sales generate cash, so that when sales are low, less
cash is generated and higher loans are required.
@Risk Results -- continued
 We also see that Entson is spending about
$20,000 on average in interest on the loans,
although the actual amounts vary
considerably from one iteration to another.
 We can also gain insights by creating a
summary chart of the series of loans.
 To obtain this chart, we must first identify the
Loans range as an output range.
@Risk Results -- continued
 After running the simulation, we can then request a
summary chart of this output range.
 The summary chart for the Loans range appears on
the next slide.
 This chart clearly shows how the loans vary through
time. The middle line is the expected loan amount.
The inner bands extend to one standard deviation on
each side of the mean, and the outer bands extend to
the 5th and 95th percentiles.
 We see that the largest loans will be required in
March and April.
@Risk Results -- continued
Example 12.8
Simulating Stock Price and Options
Background Information
 A share of AnTech stock currently sells for $42.
 A European call option with an expiration date of 6
months and an exercise price of $40 is available.
 The stock has an annual standard deviation of 20%.
 The stock price has tended to increase at a mean
rate of 15% per year. The risk-free rate is 10% per
year.
 What is a fair price for this option?
European Options
 A European option on a stock gives the owner of the
option the right to buy (if the option is a call option) or
sell (if the option is a put option) one share of a stock
on a particular date for a particular price.
 The date on which the option must be used is called
the expiration date.
 Cox et al. derived a method for pricing options. Their
model states that the price of an option must be the
expected discounted value of the cash flows from an
option on a stock having the same standard as the
stock on which the option is written and growing at
the risk-free rate of interest.
ANTECH1.XLS
 According to Cox et al. we need to know the mean of
the cash flow from this option, discounted to the
present time (time 0), assuming that the stock price
increases at the risk-free rate.
 Therefore, we will simulate many 6-month periods,
each time finding the discounted cash flow of the
option.
 The average of these discounted cash flows
represents an estimate of the true mean.
 The spreadsheet model is quite simple. This file
contains the setup for the model.
The Spreadsheet Model
Developing the Spreadsheet Model
 The model can be formed with the following steps:


Inputs. Enter the inputs in the shaded cells. Note that
the expiration date is expressed in years. Also note
that we enter the mean growth rate of the stock in cell
B6. However, this value is not used in the model.
Simulated stock price at exercise date. To simulate
the stock price in 6 months we enter the formula
=B4*EXP((B8.5*B7^2)*B9+B7*RISKNORMAL(0,1)*SQRT(B9))
in cell B12.
Developing the Spreadsheet Model
-- continued


Cash flow from option. Calculate the cash flow from
the option by entering the formula =MAX(FutPriceExerPrice,0) in cell B13. This says that if the value in
B12 is greater than the value in cell B5, we make the
difference; otherwise, we make nothing.
Discount the cash flow. Discount the cash flow in cell
B14 with the formula =RISKOUTPUT ( ) + EXP(Duration*RFRate)*OptCFlow This represents the net
present value of cash flow (if any) realized at the
expiration date. Because the price of the option will be
the average of this discounted value, it must be
designated as an @Risk output cell.
Developing the Spreadsheet Model
-- continued

Average of output cell. We might as well
take advantage of @Risk’s RISKMEAN
function to get the eventual price of the option
on the spreadsheet itself. To do this, enter the
formula =RISKMEAN(DiscVal) in cell B16.
Using @Risk
 Set the number of iterations to 10,000, and
set the number of simulations to 1.
 After running @Risk, the value of $4.76
appears in cell B16. It turns out that this is the
exact price of the option (using the formula)
so the simulation got it exactly right!
 We recognize, however, that the simulated
mean might not be exactly equal to the true
mean. Therefore, we calculate a 95%
confidence interval for the true mean in row
19.
Using @Risk -- continued
 To do this, we first enter the formula
=RISKSTDEV(DiscVal) in cell B18.
 This standard deviation indicates the variability of the
discounted cash flow in the 10,000 iterations.
 Then we go out 1.96 standard errors on each side of
the mean to form the confidence interval in row 19,
where the standard error is the standard deviation in
cell B18 divided by the square root of 10,000.
 Based on the simulation, we cannot be absolutely
sure of the option price, but we are 95% confident
that it is between $4.66 and $5.06.
Example 12.9
Simulating Stock Price and Options
Background Information
 Suppose the investor buys one share of
AnTech stock at the current price and an
option on this stock for $4.76, the fair price
we calculated.
 Use simulation to find the return on the
investor’s portfolio as of the exercise date.
ANTECH2.XLS
 The purpose of the current simulation is
totally different. It is to simulate the behavior
of the portfolio.
 Therefore, we should now let the stock price
grow as its mean rate, not the risk-free rate,
to generate the stock price in 6 months.
 The spreadsheet model appears on the next
slide.
 The setup can be found in this file.
The Spreadsheet Model
Developing the Spreadsheet Model
 The model can be formed with the following steps:



Inputs. Enter the inputs in the shaded cells. These are
the same as before, but they now include the known
price of the call option.
Future stock price. Generate the random stock price
in 6 months in cell B13 with the formula. This again
uses the equation, but it uses the stock’s mean growth
rate, not the risk-free rate for .
Option cash flow. Calculate the cash flow from the
option exactly as before by entering the formula
=MAX(FutPrice-ExerPrice,0) in cell B14.
Developing the Spreadsheet Model
-- continued


Portfolio value. In 6 months the portfolio will be worth
the price of the stock plus cash flow from the option.
Calculate this in cell B16 with the formula
=SUM(FutPrice,OptCFlow) Then in cells B17 and
B18, calculate the amount we paid for the portfolio and
its return with the formulas =CurrPrice+OptPrice and
=RISKOUTPUT( ) +(EndPortVal-PortCost)/PortCost
Note that the portfolio return is the only cell designated
as an 2Risk output cell.
@Risk summary statistics. We again show the basic
summary results from@Risk on the spreadsheet by
using its RISKMEAN, RISKSTDEV, RISKMIN,
RISKMAX, RISPERCENTILE, and RISKTARGET
functions. For example, the formulas in cells B25 and
B27 are =RISKPERCENTILE(PortReturn,0.05) and
=1-RISKTARGET(PortReturn,0).
Using @Risk
 Set the number of iterations to 10,000, and set the
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number of simulations to 1.
After running @Risk, we obtain the values in the
range B21:B27.
The mean return from this portfolio is about 9.4%, but
there is a considerable variability.
There is a 5% chance that it will lose about 24%, and
there is a 5% chance that it will gain about 56%.
The probability that it will provide a positive return is
about 0.59.
Financial Portfolio
 If you have any intuition for financial portfolios, you
have probably noticed that this investor is “putting all
her eggs in one basket.”
 A safer strategy is to hedge her bets. She can
purchase one share of the stock and purchase a put
option on the stock.

With a put option, the investor hopes the stock price
will decrease because she can then sell a share at the
exercise price and immediately buy it back at the
decreases stock price, thus earning a profit.
 Therefore, a portfolio consisting of a share of stock
and a put option on the stock covers the investor in
both directions. It has less upside potential, but it
decreases the downside risk.
Example 12.10
Simulating Stock Price and Options
Background Information
 Consider a stock currently priced at $100 per
share.
 Its mean annual return is 15% and the
standard deviation of its annual return is 30%.
 What is the value of an Asian option that
expires in 52 weeks (1 year) with an exercise
price of $100?
 Assume that the risk-free rate is 9%.
Asian option
 This option is a variation of the call option.
 Its payoff depends not on the price at
expiration of the underlying stock, but on the
average price of the stock over the lifetime of
the option.
 To price an Asian option, we again need to
find the expected discounted value of the
payoff from the option, assuming that the
stock grows at the risk-free rate.
Solution
 To value this option we will base pavg on the
average of the weekly (simulated) stock
prices, assuming that the stock price grows at
the risk-free rate.
 This requires us to generate weekly stock
prices. The key is to interpret p0 and pt
correctly.
 To generate any week’s price we must
identify p0 with the previous week’s price and
pt with the current week’s price.
ASIAN.XLS
 The spreadsheet model appears below. It can be
formed from the setup in this file.
Developing the Spreadsheet Model
 The following steps must be followed to form the
model:

Inputs. Enter the inputs in the shaded range.

Weekly prices. Enter the initial prices (week 0) in cell
E5 with the formula =CurrPrice. Then generate each
weekly price from the previous one, enter the formula
=E5*EXP((RFRate-.5*$B$7^2)*(1/52)+
$B$7*RISKNORMAL(0,1)*SQRT(1/52))
in cell E6 and copy it to the range E7:E57.

Discounted value of option. Enter the formulas
=AVERAGE(WeeklyPrices), =MAX(AvgWkPriceExerPrice,0), and =RISKOUTPUT( ) + EXP(Duration*RFRate)*OptCFlow in cells B12, B13 and
B14.
Developing the Spreadsheet Model
-- continued

Average of output cell. We again show the
main @Risk summary measure in the
spreadsheet itself. Enter the formula
=RISKMEAN(DiscVal) in cell B16.
@Risk Results
 After running @Risk for 5000 iterations, the
value in cell B16 is $4.75.
 This is our estimate for the price of this Asian
option.
 The actual market price of this particular
option turns out to be $4.68, very close to our
estimate.
Example 12.11
Simulating Stock Price and Options
Background Information
 Attorney Sally Evans has just begun her career. At
age 25, she has 40 years until retirement, but she
realizes that now is the time to start investing.
 She plans to invest $1000 at the beginning of each of
the next 40 years.
 Each year, she plans to put fixed percentages – the
same each year – of this $1000 in stocks, bonds and
T-bills. However, she is not sure which percentage to
use.
 She does have historical annual returns from stocks,
bond and T-bills from 1946-1994.
RETIREMENT.XLS
 This file contains the historical data for the stocks,
bond and T-bills.
 This file also includes inflation factors for these years.
 For example, for 1993 the annual returns for stocks,
bonds, and T-bills were 9.99%, 18.24% and 2.90%,
and then inflation rate was 2.75%.
 Sally would like to use simulation to help decide what
investment weights to use, with the objective of
achieving a large investment value, in today’s dollars,
at the end of 40 years.
Solution
 The most difficult part of the solution is settling on a
way to use the historical returns and inflation factors
to generate future values of these quantities.
 We will use a “scenario” approach.
 We think of each historical year as a possible
scenario, where the scenario specifies the returns
and inflation factor for that year.
 Then for any future year, we randomly choose one of
these scenarios, using RISKDISCRETE function.
Solution -- continued
 It seems intuitive that more recent scenarios ought to
have a larger chance of being chosen.
 To implement this idea, we give a weight to each
scenario, starting with weight 1 for 1994. Then the
weight for any year is a “damping factor” times the
weight from the next year.
 To change these weights to probabilities, we simply
divide each weight by the sum of all the weights. The
damping factor we will illustrate is 0.98.
Solution -- continued
 The other difficult part of the solution is
knowing which investment weights to try.
 This is really an optimization problem – find
three weights that add to 1 and produce the
largest mean final cash.
 Palisades has another software package –
RiskOptimizer, that solves this type of
optimization-simulation problem.
RETIREMENT.XLS
 The historical data and the simulation model
appear on the following slides and in this file.
The Historical Data
The Simulation Model
Developing the Spreadsheet Model
 The model can be developed as follows.
 Inputs. Enter the data in the shaded regions. These
include the historical returns and inflation factors, the
alternative sets of investment weights we plan to test,
and other inputs.
 Weights. The investment weights we will use for the
model are in row 17. We do this with a RISKSIMTABLE
and VLOOKUP combination in the usual way.
Specifically, enter the formulas
=RISKSIMTABLE(A10:A12) and
=VLOOKUP(Index,Ltable1,B15) in cells A17 and B17,
and copy the latter to the range C17:D17.
Developing the Spreadsheet Model
-- continued


Probabilities. Enter value 1 in cell F69. Then enter the
formula =Damper*F69 in cell F68 and copy it up to cell
F21. Sum these values with the SUM function in cell
F70. Then to convert them to probabilities, enter the
formula =F21/$F$70 in cell G21 and copy it down to
cell G69.
Scenarios. Moving to the model shown, we want to
simulate 40 scenarios in columns K-O, one for each
year of Sally’s investing. To do this, enter the formulas
=RISKDISCRETE(Years,Probs) and
=1+VLOOKUP($K20,LTable2,L$18) in cells K20 and
L20, and then copy this latter formula to the range
M20:O20. Make sure you understand how the
RISKDISCRETE and VLOOKUP functions combine to
capture the data from a randomly selected historical
year.
Developing the Spreadsheet Model
-- continued


Beginning, ending cash. The bookkeeping part is
straightforward. Begin by entering the formula =Invest
in cell J20 for the initial investment. Then enter the
formulas =J20*SUMPRODUCT(Weights,L20:N20)
and =Invest+P20 in cells P20 and J21 for ending cash
in the first year and beginning cash in the second year.
The former shows how the beginning cash grows in a
given year. The latter implies that Sally reinvests her
previous money, plus she invests a new $1000. Copy
these formulas down column J and P.
Deflators. We eventually want to deflate future dollars
to today’s dollars. The proper way to do this is to
calculate deflators. Do this by entering the formula
=1/O20 in cell Q20. Then enter the formula Q20/O21 in
cells Q21 and copy it down.
Developing the Spreadsheet Model
-- continued

Summary measures. For any time horizon
specified in cell B6, we can pick off the
information we need with a third VLOOKUP.
Do this by entering the formulas
=VLOOKUP(Horizon,LTable3,8),
=VLOOKUP(Horizon,LTable3,9), and
=RISKOUTPUT( )+K13*K14 in cells K13K15. This last quantity is the output we will
examine with @Risk.
@Risk Results
 We set the number of iterations to 1000 and
the number of simulations to 3.
 Summary results appear here. The first
simulation, which invests the most heavily in
stocks, is easily the winner.
@Risk Results -- continued
 The histogram for simulation 1, shown on the
next slide, indicates the tremendous amount
of variability – and skewness – in the
distribution of final cash.
 A useful concept we might introduce here is
value at risk (VAR). It is defined as the 5th
percentile of a distribution and is often the
value investors worry about.
@Risk Results -- continued
@Risk Results -- continued
 We also encourage you to try running this
simulation with other investment weights,
both for the 40-year horizon and for shorter
time horizons such as 10 or 15 years.
 Even though the stock strategy appears to be
best for a long horizon, it might not fare as
well for a shorter horizon.