Derivation for number of periods finance formula

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Homework Help Overview

The discussion revolves around understanding the derivation of a formula related to the number of periods in a loan payment context, specifically from a finance textbook. The formula in question involves present value, cash flow, and future value, and participants are exploring its components and implications.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory, Conceptual clarification, Mathematical reasoning, Assumption checking

Approaches and Questions Raised

  • Participants are attempting to clarify the meaning of terms like future value and present value, and questioning the signs of these values in the equations. Some suggest using logarithms or numerical analysis to derive the number of periods, while others propose simplifying the problem by focusing on the annuity formula.

Discussion Status

The discussion is active with various interpretations being explored. Some participants are providing hints and suggesting derivation approaches, while others are questioning the assumptions behind the formulas. There is no explicit consensus, but several productive lines of inquiry are being pursued.

Contextual Notes

Participants are navigating the complexities of financial formulas, including the implications of cash flow signs and the treatment of interest rates per period. The original poster expresses frustration with the lack of derivation in the textbook, indicating a desire for foundational understanding.

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Homework Statement


Hi, I am reading this book called, Introduction to Corporate Finance, by Berk, Demarzo, Harford (second edition). In it they try to explain how to calculate the number of periods in a loan payment formula. Authors give the following equation.
$$ 0 =PV + PMT \times \frac{1}{I/Y}\left( 1 - \frac{1}{(1+I/Y)^N} \right) + \frac{FV}{(1+I/Y)^N} $$

where ##PV## is the present value of annuity, ##PMT## is cash flow or payment per period, and ##I/Y## is the discount rate. I don't understand how they arrive at this formula. Authors are math phobic, I think, as they don't derive difficult formulae from first principles.

Homework Equations


Formula for the annuity.
$$ PV = C \times \frac{1}{r} \left( 1 - \frac{1}{(1+r)^N} \right) $$

where ##C## is annuity for ##N## periods with interest rate ##r##.

The Attempt at a Solution



I am stuck. Any hints would be helpful.
 
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I think the authors are trying to explain how to get the rate of return. In the title of this post, I said number of periods. We can just use logarithms to find it. But to calculate the rate of return , we need to use numerical analysis.
 
I think we don't this complicated expression. We can just run the numerical analysis on the annuity formula.
 
What is FV? I'll guess "future value".

In the first equation, something on the right must be negative. Is PV negative here, maybe measured from the opposite point of view from the PV in the second equation?

If that is right, and the second equation assumes future value is zero (all paid out) then the first equation is just a generalisation of the second to the case where FV is nonzero.
 
Why don't you try deriving it yourself? Let ##P_0## be the initial principal of the loan, r the yearly interest rate, and n the number of payments per year. Let P be the remaining principal after N payments (say, P is a final balloon payment). Once you have derived the equation for P, you will have established all the cash flows, and you can derive an expression for the NPV.
 
I think I resolved this. All I can do is to use the formula for annuity.
 
haruspex said:
What is FV? I'll guess "future value".

In the first equation, something on the right must be negative. Is PV negative here, maybe measured from the opposite point of view from the PV in the second equation?

If that is right, and the second equation assumes future value is zero (all paid out) then the first equation is just a generalisation of the second to the case where FV is nonzero.
Most financial calculators (and the Payment function in MS Excel) will return a negative number for the payment if the present value is positive, and future value is less than the present value, so the Payment is likely the one which will be negative. Think about it - if you owe some money, and positive is the convention for how much you owe, then each payment will contribute to reducing how much you owe, so the payment should be opposite sign of the present value.
 
Typically the interest rate, is per period. Example, if the payments were monthly, and you had a rate of 12% per year, then the rate (per period) is 1%, since there are 12 periods in a year. If it is quarterly, then the rate per period is 3%, etc.
 
I've done what I suggested the OP do in post #5. After n payments, the remaining principal is given by:
$$P_n=P_0r^n-m\frac{(r^n-1)}{r-1}$$where ##P_0## is the original principal, n is the number of payments, m is the payment at the end of each interest interval, and ##r=1+i##, with i representing the interest rate applied to each payment. If we divide this equation by ##r^n## (the discount factor), we obtain: $$\frac{P_n}{r^n}=P_0-m\frac{(1-r^{-n})}{i}$$ The loan is repaid when ##P_n=0##. So, $$0=P_0-m\frac{(1-r^{-n})}{i}$$. This is the present value of the stream of cash flows received by the loanee until he has paid back the loan in full. The second term on the right hand side is the present value of the annuity received by the loanor reckoned at time zero, and is equal to the amount originally loaned.
 

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