This thesis improves our understanding of asset prices and returns as it documents a regime shift risk premium in currencies, corrects the estimation bias in the term premium of bond yields, and shows the impact of ambiguity aversion towards parameter uncertainty on equities. The thesis consists of three essays. The first essay "The Yen Risk Premiums: A Story of Regime Shifts in Bond Markets" documents a new monetary mechanism, namely the shift of monetary policies, to account for the forward premium puzzle in the USD-JPY currency pair. The shift of monetary policy regimes is modelled by a regime switching dynamic term structure model where the risk of regime shifts is priced. Our model estimation characterises two policy regimes in the Japanese bond market---a conventional monetary policy regime and an unconventional policy regime of quantitative easing. Using foreign exchange data from 1985 to 2009, we find that the shift of monetary policies generates currency risk: the yen excess return is predicted by the Japanese regime shift premium, and the emergence of the yen carry trade in the mid 1990s is associated with the transition from the conventional to the unconventional monetary policy in Japan. The second essay "Correcting Estimation Bias in Regime Switching Dynamic Term Structure Models" examines the small sample bias in the estimation of a regime switching dynamic term structure model. Using US data from 1971 to 2009, we document two regimes driven by the conditional volatility of bond yields and risk factors. In both regimes, the process of bond yields is highly persistent, which is the source of estimation bias when the sample size is small. After bias correction, the inference about expectations of future policy rates and long-maturity term premia changes dramatically in two high-volatility episodes: the 1979--1982 monetary experiment and the recent financial crisis. Empirical findings are supported by Monte Carlo simulation, which shows that correcting small sample bias leads to more accurate inference about expectations of future policy rates and term premia compared to before bias correction. The third essay "Learning about the Persistence of Recessions under Ambiguity Aversion" incorporates ambiguity aversion into the process of parameter learning and assess the asset pricing implications of the model. Ambiguity is characterised by the unknown parameter that governs the persistence of recessions, and the representative investor learns about this parameter while being ambiguity averse towards parameter uncertainty. We examine model-implied conditional moments and simulated moments of asset prices and returns, and document an uncertainty effect that characterises the difference between learning under ambiguity aversion and learning under standard recursive utility. This uncertainty effect is asymmetric across economic expansions and recessions, and this asymmetry generates in simulation a sharp increase in the equity premium at the onset of recessions, as in the recent financial crisis.

The currency carry trade – whereby one simultaneously borrows in a currency with low interest rate and invests in a currency with high interest rate – is estimated to be at least USD 2.0 trillion in emerging markets alone. By some characterised as “picking up nickels in front of a steam roller”, the carry trade is subject to pronounced periods of disadvantageous currency depreciations. Although the carry trade has been profitable historically, these sudden depreciations at least attenuate, if not completely eradicate returns. The search for yield has led contemporary investors to emerging markets where the volatility is higher, thereby increasing risk and prospective return. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate how quantitative risk indicators can be constructed in order to detect market-reversals, mitigate currency depreciations, and ultimately improve the profitability of the emerging market currency carry trade. For this purpose risk has been categorised into two dichotomous risk classes, global and idiosyncratic; the former referring to systematic, non-country specific risk; the latter to residual, country specific risk. Each risk has been modelled separately. By optimising carry trade return conditioned on a number of distinctive risk measures, attributable to the respective risks, it was concluded that a broad weighted global risk indicator provide substantially augmented risk-adjusted return in an emerging market carry trade, while idiosyncratic indicators might require a bespoke framework for each currency at hand. / Valuta carry-handeln (carry trade) – vari en investerare lånar i en valuta med låga räntor och investerar i en valuta med höga räntor – beräknas omfatta åtminstone två biljoner USD enbart i tillväxtmarknader. Karakteriserat av vissa som att ”plocka upp kronor framför en ångvält” [författarnas översättning], är carry-handeln utsatt för tydliga perioder av ogynnsamma valutadeprecieringar. Trots carry-handelns historiska lönsamhet, dämpar, om inte helt raderar, dessa nedgångar avkastningen. Sökandet efter avkastning har fått investerare att alltmer vända sig till tillväxtmarknader, där volatiliteten är högre och därmed risken samt den förväntade avkastningen. Syftet med denna uppsats är att utforska hur kvantitativa riskindikatorer kan konstrueras för att förekomma marknadsvändningar, dämpa effekten av valutadeprecieringar, och slutligen stärka carry-handels lönsamheten i tillväxtmarknader. I detta syfte har risk kategoriserats i två tudelade riskklasser, global och idiosynkratisk; den förra hänsyftar systematisk, icke-landspecifik risk; den senare osystematisk, landspecifik risk. Vardera risken har modellerats separat. Genom att optimera carry-handelns avkastning villkorat under ett antal distinkta riskmått hänförbara till respektive risk, drogs slutsatsen att en bred, viktad, global riskindikator gav carry-handeln i tillväxtmarknader väsentligt förbättrad riskjusterad avkastning, medan idiosynkratiska riskindikatorer kräver speciellt anpassat tillvägagångssätt för vardera valutan.

本文主要在探討在較為短的時間段以及不同的金融環境之下，是否仍然能捕捉到匯率市場中主要解釋投組報酬變動的共同風險因子－平均超額報酬以及利差報酬。我們依據重要金融事件將全樣本分為八個子樣本；總共使用39種幣別並將1983年11月至2015年10月的遠期貼水由小到大排序後，依序建構六個投資組合。全文以美國投資者的觀點出發。結果顯示平均超額報酬無論是在長期或短期的時間段下，仍然為匯率市場中解釋匯率報酬變動的主要風險因子。然而，利差報酬則不然。在銀行危機期間，利差報酬與第二主要成分之相關係數皆為高度負相關。近期自2008年次貸危機開始，利差報酬與解釋投組變動的第二主要成分之相關係數也從先前的0.8~0.9降至-0.80.此結果顯示利差交易似乎在次貸危機之後有所轉變。此外利差風險因子無法有效的解釋動能報酬。 / This paper investigates whether or not the common risk factors, dollar and carry trade risk, in currency markets proposed by Lustig, Roussanov and Verdelhan (2011) will still exist even under a short-run period with a concern of different financial backgrounds. A split of full sample into eight subsamples with respect of financial events is made. A total of 39 currencies is used to build six portfolios on the basis of the forward discounts from November 1983 to October 2015. The whole paper is in the view of an American investor. The finding suggests that under both long-run and short-run period, the dollar return is always the common factor in currency markets. However, it is not the same case for the carry trade return. During bank crises, the carry trade return is strongly negative correlated with the second component. The carry trade return turns out to have a negative correlation with the second component during and after the subprime crisis, decreasing from 0.8~0.9 in the previous subsamples to -0.80. It indicates that the desirability of carry trade activities has changed since the subprime crisis. Besides, the carry trade risk has a little power to explain the variations of momentum returns.

Nous étudions des stratégies d'investissement dont l'utilisation s'est généralisée sur les marchés financiers, et leur impact sur le prix des actifs et le risque de marché.Dans le premier chapitre nous nous intéressons aux stratégies de diversification de portefeuille. Nous montronsau travers d'un modèle théorique que si la diversification a un effet positif au niveau individuel pour l'investisseur,elle crée également des liens entre les différents investisseurs et titres, qui peuvent se révéler dangereux d'un pointde vue systémique. Nous mesurons les deux effets afin de discuter de la désirabilité globale de la diversification.Le second chapitre considère les stratégies d'investissement basées sur le groupement de titres financierspartageant certaines caractéristiques en différentes classes, ou styles. Nous postulons que ces stratégies créentun co-mouvement excessif entre titres d'un même style, qui seront vendus et achetés ensemble au sein d'une mêmeclasse. Appliquant cette intuition aux notes des agences sur les obligations, nous montrons qu'une obligation quichange de note se met en effet à varier comme sa nouvelle note, même quand les fondamentaux économiques ne lejustifient pas.Dans le troisième chapitre nous étudions trois types d'investisseurs opérant sur le marché des changes : les carry traders, les chartistes et les fondamentalistes. Notre modèle théorique suggère que l'interaction entre cestrois règles d'investissement peut expliquer la déconnexion bien documentée entre le taux de change et sa valeurfondamentale, ainsi que provoquer un effondrement endogène des taux de change. / We study how popular investment rules in financial markets may induce endogenous movements inasset prices, leading to higher market risk.In the first chapter, we focus on portfolio diversification. We show through a theoretical model that this strategyis beneficial at the individual investor level, but also creates endogenous links between assets and investors, whichcan be dangerous from a systemic perspective. We measure both effects in order to discuss the overall desirabilityof diversification.The second chapter considers strategies based on grouping assets that share common characteristics intodifferent classes, or styles. We postulate that these strategies create excess comovement between assets of asimilar style, as they are traded together as part of the same class. Applying this reasoning to bond credit ratings,we show that bonds joining a new rating class indeed start comoving more with the bonds of this rating, evenwhen fundamental factors suggest otherwise.In the third chapter, we study three investors who operate in the foreign exchange market: carry traders,chartists and fundamentalists. We provide a theoretical model which suggests that the interaction between thesetrading rules may explain the well documented exchange rate disconnect from its fundamental value, and lead toendogenous currency crashes.

本研究欲探討國家商品貿易特性在匯率報酬評價中扮演的角色，決定匯率報酬的因素非常多，包含利率、市場波動、國際貿易及國家政治等非常廣泛的因素，而國家商品貿易特性也會是影響匯率報酬評價的可能因素之一。本研究以「進口比率」(Import Ratios) 衡量國家的商品貿易特性，也以該數值建構投資組合。研究結果發現，去除商品貿易特性特殊之國家後，進口比例(Import Ratio)越高之投資組合，其遠期外匯貼水也偏高，且外匯超額報酬也隨之遞增。 在Ready, Roussanov, and Ward(2013)論文中認為，國家的商品貿易特性是造成不同國家利率高低差異的原因，所以該作者認為國家商品貿易特性極有可能是利差交易背後的原因。然而，本研究的Fama-Macbeth 兩步驟橫斷面迴歸實證結果發現，國家的商品貿易特性確實是造成國家利率差異的因素之一，但利差交易背後的風險背後的因素，雖然包含國家商品貿易因素，但仍包含其他因素，且商品貿易因子(IMX)無法取代利差交易因子(HML)在外匯超額報酬評價模型中的角色。 此外，本研究亦嘗試在Lustig所提出之市場因子(RX)和利差交易因子(HML)的兩因子模型中，再額外加入商品貿易因子(IMX)，構成匯率評價的三因子模型，但研究結果發現不論是在遠期外匯貼水投資組合或商品貿易投資組合中，三因子模型都沒有優於兩因子模型。 / There are many factors in determinant of exchange rate returns, such as interest rates, market volatility, international trade and politics. The purpose of this research is considering commodity trade in the pricing model of excess return of currency market. This research use “Import Ratios” to measure the characteristic of different countries’ commodity trade. We use import ratios to construct “Import Ratio Sort Portfolio”. After removing the countries which commodity trade characteristics are special, we could see when import ratios is higher, the forward discount and exchange rate return are also higher in import ratio sort portfolio. Ready, Roussanov, and Ward(2013) thought the commodity trade is the reason that cause interest rate differences between countries. In this research, the result of Fama-Macbeth two-step regression show that commodity trade is one of the reasons that cause interest rate differences. It means that there are other risks behind carry trade. In the pricing model of excess return of currency market, HML factor can’t be replaced by IMX factor. We also try to construct three-factor model, which consider excess return, carry trade, and commodity trade simultaneously. But the result shows that three-factor model can not have better explanatory power than Lustig, Roussanov, and Verdelhan(2011)’s two-factor model.

The main aim of this diploma thesis is to determine the buying atmosphere of the selected business unit and develop suggestions for improvement based on a marketing research. The first part of the thesis is devoted to literary research to define terms like a trade, a wholesale and a customer behaviour. Then a buying atmosphere and her elements are described. In the next part of the thesis is presented the selected wholesaler - Makro in České Budějovice. Information about buying atmosphere, customers and services of Makro are given. The second part of this work focus on the marketing research specifically on the questionnaire survey and an interview with shop manager Ing. Hana Galisová. The data from survey was acquired online and also in person directly in the store. The survey was attended by 254 respondents and their responses were evaluated using graphs.

This thesis concerns with speculative carry trade strategy. Carry trade is based on breach of Uncovered Interest Parity. The theoretical part is focused on traditional fundamental analysis. This thesis deals with the identification of carry trade existence and capture their expressions in the financial markets, verification profitability and attractiveness of carry trade operations, analysis of conditions for carry trade on financial markets before and after global financial crisis 2008. Important part of the work was also description of the consequences of carry trade transactions and their effects on the exchange rate and financial situation

本篇論文主要在外匯市場建立市場投資組合、利差交易投資組合與動能交易投資組合，探討透過不同情境適當改變投資組合比重配置，是否能夠顯著提升交易策略的報酬表現。 以1999年1月至2015年10月為樣本期間，根據28個國家外匯市場資料建構市場投資組合、利差交易投資組合與動能交易投資組合等，之後根據三種投資組合報酬情況透過馬可夫情境轉換模型區分成三種情境。按三種情境的各種投資組合超額報酬表現，再利用馬可維茲的平均數-變異數投資組合模型配置各情境下各項交易的比重，再依據計算出的預期情境與相對應比重進行投資。其結果顯示在樣本期間內，本篇論文的交易策略相較於外匯市場投資組合、利差交易投資組合與動能交易組合有較佳的投資表現。 在樣本外測試部分，採用自2012年中開始的連續情境二資料進行分析。報酬方面，在其他交易型態呈現負報酬較多情況下，就本文交易策略而言，投資者隨時根據其各種交易平均報酬與共變異數進行交易比重配置，適時放空交易策略或投資無風險資產，產生正報酬。但從標準差可以推斷投資者面對未來的不確定，在整個樣本外期間歷時的34個月當中標準差亦無法有效降低，說明了投資者面對下一期總體環境的高不確定性。 / In this thesis, we mainly investigate whether it could improve the performance of currency portfolio by adjusting weights among carry trade, momentum and market return in foreign exchange market under different kinds of regimes. Based on a sample of 28 market currencies, we form three kinds of transactions in our portfolio, including carry trade, momentum, and market return. Under Markov switching model, we divide the sample period into three regimes, and then determine weights among carry trade, momentum and market return by parameters of each re-gime using Markowitz mean-variance analysis. Finally, we invest different weights among three transactions according to each expected regime. We find the result that although the return of the strategy is just a little higher than the carry trade, the risk is much lower compared to other transactions. In our out-of-sample testing, we analyze the performance by using the data of the regime two which begins September, 2012. With the respect to the return, most of other risky transactions have negative return, but we get positive return by adjusting the long position and short position according to the result of the mean-variance anal-ysis. However, we can not effectively reduce risk by using the strategy, and in the meantime it can explain the high uncertainty investors face toward the next period.

利差交易(Carry Trade)是在各種貨幣的利率水平上進行套利的交易以獲得價差收益的交易型態。而利差交易在這幾年創造出諸多研究的方向；利差交易又稱為套息交易，即借入低利率的貨幣，以購買其它高收益的投資工具，如高利率貨幣、股票、或是實物資產等，進而從中賺取其間的利率及匯率差價。諸如債券或國庫券等現貨金融工具所帶來的收益與該項投資的融資成本間的差額。 利差交易多在市場處於穩定低風險狀況下時，才能夠得到穩定的報酬率，因此如何客觀準確的評量目前市場所處的風險狀態，以獲得相對平穩又較佳的收益是主要的研究方向。本研究以如何求得利差交易裡面各項最佳且保持穩定性的參數與指標，假設利差交易可以經由衡量某些風險指標的平均值，並當風險指標低時建立利差交易部位，反之，當風險指標高時結束利差交易，甚至更積極進行反向利差交易，以求達到穩定報酬率的目標。 / Title of Thesis: Empirical Performance of Carry Trade Trading Strategy School/Graduate School: National Chengchi University Executive Master Of Business Administration, Advanced Finance Class – Risk Management and Insurance Group Graduate Student : Lee, Nai-Chun Instructor: Dr. Kang, Jung Pao Thesis Content: Carry trade bases on interest rate differences of many currency pairs to make capital gains and interest income and it creates many research topics in recent years. Carry trade borrows low yield currencies and invests other high yield targets such as high yield currencies, stocks, or real assets to get interest incomes and capital gains from foreign exchange rates. Only when a foreign exchange market is under stable and low-risk conditions, carry trade can achieve stable return rates. Therefore, how to objectively evaluate current market risk situations to get relatively stable and more returns is the main research topic of this thesis. This thesis reports how to get optimal and consistently stable parameters and indicators of carry trade. It assumes that carry trade can build positions by measuring some mean values of risk indicators when risk indicators are low. On the contrary, it ends the trade when risk indicators are high and even actively short carry trade positions to achieve stable return rates. Key words: carry trade、capital gain、exchange rate、risk indicator

Submitted by Pablo F. Oliveira (pablo.perque@gmail.com) on 2012-02-29T12:36:59Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao - Pablo Frisanco Oliveira -final.pdf: 1039827 bytes, checksum: 63d8e3ff3c6593d9ef449829e78e77c1 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Gisele Isaura Hannickel (gisele.hannickel@fgv.br) on 2012-02-29T12:45:22Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao - Pablo Frisanco Oliveira -final.pdf: 1039827 bytes, checksum: 63d8e3ff3c6593d9ef449829e78e77c1 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2012-02-29T12:55:43Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao - Pablo Frisanco Oliveira -final.pdf: 1039827 bytes, checksum: 63d8e3ff3c6593d9ef449829e78e77c1 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-01-30 / The aim of the present work is verify if, when the higher moments (skewness and kurtosis) are taken in consideration for carry trade portfolio allocation optimization, an investor can be better off than the traditional allocation, which prioritizes only the first two moments (mean and variance). The hypothesis of the research is that a carry trade currency exhibits non-Normal returns distribution, and its higher moments have a dynamic which can be modeled by GARCH-type model, in this specific case IC-GARCHSK. This model consists of one equation to each of the independent components’ conditional moments, named the returns, variance, the skewness, and the kurtosis. Another hypothesis is that a CARA (constant absolute risk aversion) utility function investor can have its function approximated by 4th order Taylor expansion. The work’s strategy is modelling the dynamics of the daily log-returns series’ moments of some carry trade currencies using the model above and dynamically estimate the optimal allocation which maximizes the investor’s expected utility function. The results show that the investor can benefit from taking in consideration the series’ higher moments, once this portfolio exhibited smaller opportunity cost than one that uses only mean and variance as criteria. / O objetivo do presente trabalho é verificar se, ao levar-se em consideração momentos de ordem superior (assimetria e curtose) na alocação de uma carteira de carry trade, há ganhos em relação à alocação tradicional que prioriza somente os dois primeiros momentos (média e variância). A hipótese da pesquisa é que moedas de carry trade apresentam retornos com distribuição não-Normal, e os momentos de ordem superior desta têm uma dinâmica, a qual pode ser modelada através de um modelo da família GARCH, neste caso IC-GARCHSK. Este modelo consiste em uma equação para cada momento condicional dos componentes independentes, explicitamente: o retorno, a variância, a assimetria, e a curtose. Outra hipótese é que um investidor com uma função utilidade do tipo CARA (constant absolute risk aversion), pode tê-la aproximada por uma expansão de Taylor de 4ª ordem. A estratégia do trabalho é modelar a dinâmica dos momentos da série dos logartimos neperianos dos retornos diários de algumas moedas de carry trade através do modelo IC-GARCHSK, e estimar a alocação ótima da carteira dinamicamente, de tal forma que se maximize a função utilidade do investidor. Os resultados mostram que há ganhos sim, ao levar-se em consideração os momentos de ordem superior, uma vez que o custo de oportunidade desta foi menor que o de uma carteira construída somente utilizando como critérios média e variância.