Financial returns (2)
Let's make you some more money. If, in February, you earn another 2% on your cash, how would you calculate the total amount at the end of February? You already know that the amount at the end of January is $100 * 1.05 = $105. To get from the end of January to the end of February, just use another multiplier! 
$105 * 1.02 = $107.1
Which is equivalent to:
$100 * 1.05 * 1.02 = $107.1
In this last form, you see the effect of both multipliers on your original $100. In fact, this form can help you find the total return over both months. The correct way to do this is by multiplying the two multipliers together: 1.05 * 1.02 = 1.071. This means you earned 7.1% in total over the 2 month period.
This exercise is part of the course
Introduction to R for Finance
Exercise instructions
- Your starting cash, and the returns for January and February have been given.
- Use them to calculate the January and February return multipliers: jan_multandfeb_mult.
- Use those multipliers and starting_cashto find yourtotal_cashat the end of the two months.
- Print total_cashto see how your money has grown!
Hands-on interactive exercise
Have a go at this exercise by completing this sample code.
# Starting cash and returns 
starting_cash <- 200
jan_ret <- 4
feb_ret <- 5
# Multipliers
jan_mult <- 
feb_mult <- 
# Total cash at the end of the two months
total_cash <- 
# Print total_cash