1. The continuously compounded interest rate is 5% per year, and the nine-month forward price for platinum is $1,800. What is today’s spot price of platinum?
2. Consider a price-weightedindex (I) and a synthetic index constructed from the constituent stocks (S). The current level of I is 10,000 and the price of S is $10,000. A forward contract on I mature after six months. The continuously compounded interest rate is 5% per year. Stocks constituting S are expected to pay $190 of dividends this year. If a dealer quoted a forward price $10,231 for S, can you arbitrage this quote? If so, how would you do so and what would your arbitrage profits be?