HP 30b Brochure page 2

Bond calculations. The HP 30b includes two bond duration calculations – the modified
duration and Macaulay duration. These measure a bond's price sensitivity to fluctuations
in interest rate movements by giving what is essentially a time value of money weighted
average time to maturity. While the modified duration has been in other manufacturer's
calculators before, this may be the first time the Macaulay duration has ever been on a
preprogrammed calculator.
MIRR and FMRR. The HP 30b extends the usefulness of the HP 20b's cash flow
analysis tools by including Modified Internal Rate of Return and, for the first time ever in
a financial calculator, the Financial Management Rate of Return. Both of these tools
address a problem with the basic IRR that occurs when the signs of cash flows switch
from negative to positive to negative, etc. – there can be multiple interest rates that make
the present value of the cash flows equal to the cost, which is the definition of the IRR.
That's a particular problem if you're trying to use IRR to make a decision. MIRR and
FMRR provide one rate of return that more accurately reflects the return an investor
receives. They differ on how they manipulate any negative cash flows after the initial
cash outlay.
Black-Scholes. The HP 30b includes a menu that computes put and call option prices for
European options using the Black-Scholes method. While Tony Hutchins provided the
programs to compute these for the presently shipping HP 12c calculator manual, this is
the first preprogrammed financial calculator from HP to have this built-in. This menu is
invoked using the shift+hold method and is labeled on the keyboard above the BOND
key.
Canadian Mortgages. A new Mode menu setting allows the choice of TVM Standard or
TVM Canada. When TVM Canada is chosen, the compounding periods per year can be a
different value from the payments per year. Canada is the name given since Canadian
mortgages compound interest semiannually while having monthly payments, but any
combination of compounding and payment frequencies per year can be specified.
Other. The Probability sub-menu in the Math menu has been extended by including the
binomial probability distribution. There is also a choice in the Stats menu for frequency
statistics, which is quite useful for analysis of grouped data. The Math menu has two new
functions: IP for integer part and FP for fractional part.
Still missing? In the earlier HP 20b review, several
things were listed as missing. Of these, the shift key
position being more centrally located and the lack of
a primary key for storing numbers remain on the
wish list.
Found? Programming. Yes, that's correct. The HP
30b contains programming abilities that are a
mixture of several things: key recording macros,
RPN and RPL too. Programming commands are
mapped to the shift-hold positions of the top 4 rows
of keys. These commands are not printed on the
faceplate and will not execute in run mode, but only
in program editing mode. To help the user who