How Many Decimals? calculator, problems, getting, wrong

irlfaan7

Hello All,

How many decimals are you guys using on your calculator. I am using the TI with 4 decimal places but I when doing some of the TVM problems in Stalla if I round to the fourth decimal I can end up getting the wrong answer.

Any suggestions?

Joe

FVPV

I had no problem with 4 decimals in all practice exams and in real exam in June 09.

rgonzalez

I use 5 places too. The most detailed answer that I remember from the actual cfai books only went to 5 places.....the exam won't be unfair only for the reason of trying to trick anyone. They want to test knowledge not your ability to guess how many decimals they would prefer. If this was the case, there would be a clear cut explanation in the cfa institute material on how many decimals they would like. I wouldn't worry.

Siddimaula

I'm using 5.

best regards,
Marcin

invic

I think too many decimals is absolutely worthless and the screen numbers confusing.

I use 2 decimals for all calculations. The BA-II uses all possible decimals in its calculations no matter how many decimals you say you want, those are just what it shows you not what it uses. I multiply the final result by 100 or 1000 if the question requires it (which is not often).

Antonio

dontknow1987

I'm using 5 - HP 12c platinum.

best regards,
Marcin

btcapital

You should format your calculator to 9 decimal places. on the BA2+ hit the format button by pressing 2nd and hitting the decimal point button. enter 9 under DEC and hit enter.

Further to that if you understand the basic calculation to find EAR you should really be using the ICONV button (press 2nd, then hit the number 2 button). For the question above:

NOM = 6
C/Y = 26
EFF = CPT and you get 6.176315022

Saves time which will help come exam day.

manasib

Cool, thanks for your input.

Joe

scr879

Well to be honest, I was using Google's calc function. Didn't have my TI with me. But when I use my TI with 4 decimals I do get a different answer.

However, the difference between answers a-b-c is just too narrow and don't think that it will show up in the real exam.

hariRaj

Yes b is correct. Did you have to go out to extra decimals?