Saturday, December 21, 2019

Retro Review: Casio FC-100 Financial Calculator

Retro Review:  Casio FC-100 Financial Calculator



Quick Facts:

Model:  FC-100
Company:  Casio
Type:  Finance
Years:  1987 - 1991
Display:  10 digits
Batteries:  1 CR 2035

I paid $18 on eBay, I suspect that the original price was somewhere in the $20 - $30 neighborhood. 

All the Basics Are Covered

Time Value of Money

The FC-100 has the following financial features:

Time Value of Money:  The standard cash convention is used, where cash inflows are positive, cash outflows are negative.  The [COMP] key is used to compute the needed variable.  There are two keys dedicated to amortization.  Given the number of payments:

[AMRT]:  principal paid on the nth payment, interest paid on the nth payment, balance after the first n payments

[ACC]:  accumulated principal on the first n payments, accumulated interest on the first n payments

Similar to the Hewlett Packard HP 12C, the 12× multiplies the number of years by 12 and stores the result in n (number of payments), while the 12÷ divides the annual interest rate and stores the result in i% (periodic rate). 

Cash Flows

The FC-100 can store up to 16 cash flows.  The two calculations available are net present value and initial rate of return (NPV and IRR, respectively).  The interest rate is entered using the [ i% ] key.  We can clear all the cash flows quickly by KAC (pressing [SHIFT] [ Min ]). 

Days Between Dates

There are two modes that deal with date setting:  actual (365) and 30/360 year.  There are two functions:  days between dates and adding/subtracting dates.  Only days between dates is available on the 365 setting. 

What is cool about the FC-100, is the dates are allowed between January 1, 1900 and December 31, 2099. This is pretty impressive for a calculator of the late 1980s.  Dates in the 1900 century are entered with two-digit years while dates in the 2000 century are entered with four-digit years. 

The result of any calculation will include the day of the week (0 for Sunday, 6 through Saturday).

Statistics

Single variable and linear regression are available.  The FC-100 uses the six registers for statistical sums:

K1 = ⅀x^2
K2 = ⅀x
K3 = n
K4 = ⅀y^2
K5 = ⅀y
K6 = ⅀xy

Memory Registers

Another theme of Casio calculators from the 1980s are the use of independent memory registers K1 through K6.  Store data by using Kin, recall data by using Kout.  Storage arithmetic is also available.  An independent memory register M is available.

Keyboard

The FC-100 has an on-off switch on the side of the keyboard.  I like this placement.

The keyboard is clean, the keys are nice and responsive.  I like the size of the keys of the numeric and arithmetic keys (brown).  The keys on the top four rows (in ivory) are smaller in size, a little smaller than I like.  However, the keys are comfortable to press. 

Verdict

The Casio FC-100 is a great user-friendly financial calculator. 

Source:
"Casio FC-100 (FINANCIAL CONSULTANT)"  calculator.org  https://www.calculator.org/calculators/Casio_FC-100.html  Retrieved December 6, 2019

Eddie

All original content copyright, © 2011-2019.  Edward Shore.   Unauthorized use and/or unauthorized distribution for commercial purposes without express and written permission from the author is strictly prohibited.  This blog entry may be distributed for noncommercial purposes, provided that full credit is given to the author.

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