working capital vs. net working capital

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reg

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is there a difference? it seems to be used interchangably.
and is there a formula for this? thanks!
 
change in noncash current assets minus change in nondebt current liabilities
i.e.
change in (current assets - cash) - change in (current liabilities - short term debt)
 
CA (less cash) - CL (do not include current portion of LTD, or Notes Payable or Short Term Debt (did not want to invite a barrage by saying STD (but there I said it)) …
 
does it mean these 2 terms are meaning the same thing?
coz i would guess NET working capital mean change in noncash current assets minus change in nondebt current liabilities
thanks
 
and is there a difference between WCInv and NWCInv? and how are they related to the aforementioned?
 
i think WC = (CA - cash) - (CL - STD)
and WCInv = NWCInv = change in (CA - cash) - change in ( CL - STD )
i.e. take this yrs WC and subtract last yrs WC from it to get working capital investment.
thoughts ?
 
Working capital by definition is a net figure, so working capital and net working capital are the same.
But *change* in net working capital (same as *change* in working capital) means looking at the difference in the change from period to period.
Based on that, WCInv = NWCInv.
 
In the actual exam, has anyone come across a question which require us to calculate NWCInv?
So far I havent come across one but then again I havent done that many questions compared to you lot
 
How about the marketable securities? Are they CA, and shall be excluded from for NWC calculation?
 
See the CFA sample exam. It had a good example where u had to calculate NWCInv as part of a larger question.
 
text book also had an example in there… where we calculated something like 84 or sth to that extent..
 
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