I think I vaguley remember when I started Level 1 a suggested number of digits to round to when working through problems, and more or less I’m generally pretty close to a given answer.
However with valuing derivatives, even though I’m take the right steps my numbers can be pretty off. Again, most of the time I can still pick the ‘closest’ value, but other times it’s just too close and I either have to re-do it, or literally calculate the difference between the two answers to find the one in which it’s closer.
I tend to use my STO and RCL functions on the calculator for ease and that’s probably what’s causing it. So, bottom line, is there a recommended number of decimal places I should carry my numbers to?
I’ve had my calculator set to 6 since the L1 exam calc’ing out… what the heck was it? Something in fixed income I think. Still usually off a bit on swaps but anytime I’m close enough I call that a win.
(True story: never knew what the STO and RCL buttons were for until I came into this topic so today is trending up!!!)
@ltj: some of my friends didn’t know about the AOS function until they complained why I usually do calculations faster and more accurately than them. Relax…
Go to FORMAT, use the up arrow. If you see Chn, it has not been set to AOS yet. Simply press 2nd [Enter] to change to AOS.
Edit: oh, I overlooked your question. With the AOS, our calculator will do multiplications first and then do additions or subtractions. For example: 2*3+5*6= 36 instead of 66 when the calculator is set in Chn (i.e Chain) mode.