The Master thesis "Analysis of selected investment funds in the Czech republic" deals with collective investments with focus on mutual funds. The first part is dedicated to definition of the term collective investments, its history and general characteristics of mutual funds. The middle part is dedicated at firts to the czech market of collective investment and the analysis of this market. The last part focuses on comparison of the performance of selected funds and its characteristics.

This diploma thesis deals with the management of free capital of a selected company on the financial market with a focus on mutual funds and ETFs. The result is the construction and analysis of the potential appreciation of the investment strategy interpreted through historical data and a comparison of the results with alternative options for the appreciation of financial capital, especially in the form of mutual funds.

Hållbarhet har kommit att bli en av denna generations största utmaningar och som ett resultat av ett globalt växande klimatfokus har regeringar och mellanstatliga organisationer utformat allt mer omfattande regleringar och initiativ för att möta samhällets krav på en hållbar utveckling. Att företag ska engagera sig i hållbarhetsarbete och ta socialt ansvar anses allt mer som en självklarhet och följaktligen har hållbarhetsfrågor inte enbart fått större inslag inom företag och dess ledningsgrupper, utan även hos investerare. Denna studie har som syfte att analysera huruvida ESG påverkar den justerade avkastningen på fonder i Sverige och Norden. För att analysera detta förhållande fokuserar studien på fonders hållbarhetsbetyg grundade på hållbarhetsparametrarna miljö, socialt ansvar och bolagsstyrning (ESG). I denna studie utforskar vi den övergripande frågan om konceptet ESG och för en diskussion kring dess inverkan på fondpriser. Metoden som används innefattar de finansiella kvoterna Sharpe, Sortino och Treynor samt Jensens Alfa, vars värden i sin tur jämfördes mot urvalet av fonder i studien som rangordnats efter Morningstars hållbarhetsbetyg. Studiens resultat leder till slutsatsen att det inte finns något tydligt positivt eller negativt samband mellan fonders riskjusterade avkastning och dess hållbarhetsbetyg. / Sustainability has become one of the biggest challenges for the current living generation and as a result of the increased focus on the climate issue, governments and intergovernmental organizations have designed increasingly comprehensive regulations and initiatives in order to meet society's demands for sustainable development. That companies should become more involved in sustainability work and take social responsibility is increasingly regarded as a matter of course, and consequently sustainability issues have not only gained greater importance within companies and its management groups, but also with investors. The purpose of this study is to analyse whether ESG affects the adjusted returns for funds in Sweden and the Nordics. In order to analyse this relationship the study focuses on the sustainability rating of mutual funds that are based on the sustainability parameters environmental, social and corporate governance, together referred to as ESG. In this study, we explore the overall concept of ESG and discuss its impact on fund prices. The method being used includes the financial quotas Sharpe, Sortino, Treynor and Jensen's Alpha, whose values in turn was compared against the selection of funds in the study ranked according to their respective Morningstar sustainability rating. The results of the study lead to the conclusion that there is no clear correlation, neither positive nor negative, between the funds risk-adjusted returns and its sustainability rating.

Socially responsible investing has presented itself as a growing, multifaceted, advanced and sophisticated investment philosophy. Socially responsible investment (SRI) involves incorporating social, ethical and responsible investment objectives with financial investment objectives during the investment decision-making process. Social, ethical and responsible investment objectives are set in line with environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) criteria which are established within the SRI strategy followed. SRI strategies include screening (negative, positive and best-of-sector), shareholder activism and cause-based investing. Although international SRI markets such as that of the United States of America and the United Kingdom are sophisticated and established markets, the South African SRI market is still relatively new and is yet to reach its full potential. Thus, as a growing market, little research regarding the long term risk-adjusted performance of SRI funds in South Africa has been conducted. The long term risk-adjusted performance of the sample of SRI funds was measured through the use of five risk-adjusted performance measures, namely the Treynor ratio, Sharpe ratio, Jensen’s alpha, Sortino ratio and Omega ratio, and through the use of three performance measurement models which included the capital asset pricing model (CAPM), Fama-French three-factor model and Carhart four-factor model. The risk-adjusted performance of the sample of SRI funds was measured with the intent to establish if these funds out- or underperformed against three benchmark categories, namely the Financial Times Stock Exchange/Johannesburg Stock Exchange (FTSE/JSE) SRI Index, a matched sample of conventional investment (non-SRI) funds and the FTSE/JSE All Share Index. The probable effect of the 2007/08 global financial crisis was also measured to analyse whether such a hazardous market event affected the performance of the SRI funds. According to the results and findings, the risk-adjusted performance of the SRI funds has improved over the research period. However, the SRI funds neither outperformed nor underperformed against the three benchmark categories over the research period. The performance measurement models’ analysis indicated that the SRI funds were less sensitive to market fluctuations, more exposed to small capitalisation portfolios, more growth-oriented, and exhibited significant momentum after the period of the 2007/08 global financial crisis. Furthermore, the analysis indicated that the SRI funds significantly underperformed against the non-SRI funds during the Performance of socially responsible investment funds in South Africa research period. Mixed results were obtained with regards to the probable effect of the 2007/08 global financial crisis on the performance of the SRI funds.

Socially responsible investing has presented itself as a growing, multifaceted, advanced and sophisticated investment philosophy. Socially responsible investment (SRI) involves incorporating social, ethical and responsible investment objectives with financial investment objectives during the investment decision-making process. Social, ethical and responsible investment objectives are set in line with environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) criteria which are established within the SRI strategy followed. SRI strategies include screening (negative, positive and best-of-sector), shareholder activism and cause-based investing. Although international SRI markets such as that of the United States of America and the United Kingdom are sophisticated and established markets, the South African SRI market is still relatively new and is yet to reach its full potential. Thus, as a growing market, little research regarding the long term risk-adjusted performance of SRI funds in South Africa has been conducted. The long term risk-adjusted performance of the sample of SRI funds was measured through the use of five risk-adjusted performance measures, namely the Treynor ratio, Sharpe ratio, Jensen’s alpha, Sortino ratio and Omega ratio, and through the use of three performance measurement models which included the capital asset pricing model (CAPM), Fama-French three-factor model and Carhart four-factor model. The risk-adjusted performance of the sample of SRI funds was measured with the intent to establish if these funds out- or underperformed against three benchmark categories, namely the Financial Times Stock Exchange/Johannesburg Stock Exchange (FTSE/JSE) SRI Index, a matched sample of conventional investment (non-SRI) funds and the FTSE/JSE All Share Index. The probable effect of the 2007/08 global financial crisis was also measured to analyse whether such a hazardous market event affected the performance of the SRI funds. According to the results and findings, the risk-adjusted performance of the SRI funds has improved over the research period. However, the SRI funds neither outperformed nor underperformed against the three benchmark categories over the research period. The performance measurement models’ analysis indicated that the SRI funds were less sensitive to market fluctuations, more exposed to small capitalisation portfolios, more growth-oriented, and exhibited significant momentum after the period of the 2007/08 global financial crisis. Furthermore, the analysis indicated that the SRI funds significantly underperformed against the non-SRI funds during the Performance of socially responsible investment funds in South Africa research period. Mixed results were obtained with regards to the probable effect of the 2007/08 global financial crisis on the performance of the SRI funds.

Pervious academic researches point out that there are two-way effects in the relationship between fund return performance and cash flows. The preceding fund return performance would attract net cash flows and cash flows would adversely affect the succeeding fund return performance. This paper tries to verify that whether these effects exist in Taiwan and examine these effects in more details. The results are partly consistent with pervious literatures. In our sample, we find that fund return performance positive influences both cash inflows and outflows and cash flows do affect succeeding return performance.

Few studies have examined the impact of portfolio concentration upon the realised volatility of stock index portfolios, such as the FTSE 100. Instead, previous research has focused upon diversification across industries, across geographic regions and across different firms. The present study addresses this imbalance by calculating the daily time series of four concentration metrics for the FTSE 100 Index over the period from January 1984 through March 2003. In addition, the value weighted variance covariance matrix (VCM) of daily FTSE 100 Index constituent returns is decomposed into four sub-components: two from the diagonal elements and two from the off-diagonal elements of the VCM. These consist of the average variance of constituent returns, represented by the sum of diagonal elements in the VCM, and the average covariance represented by the sum of off-diagonal elements in the VCM. The value weighted average variance (VAV) and covariance (VAC) are each subdivided into the equally weighted average variance (EAV) the equally weighted average covariance (EAC) and incremental components that represent the difference between the respective value-weighted and equally weighted averages. These are referred to as the incremental average variance (IAV) and the incremental average covariance (IAC) respectively. The incremental average variance and the incremental average covariance are then combined, additively, to produce the incremental realised variance (IRV) of the FTSE 100 Index. The incremental average covariance and the incremental realised variance are found to be negative during the 1987 crash and the 1992 ERM crisis. They are also negative for a substantial part of the study period, even when concentration was at its highest level. Hence the findings of the study are consistent with the notion that the value weighted, and hence concentrated, FTSE 100 Index portfolio is generally less risky than a hypothetical equally weighted portfolio of FTSE 100 Index constituents. Furthermore, increases in concentration tend to precede decreases in incremental realised volatility and increases in the equally weighted components of the realised VCM. The results have important implications for portfolio managers concerned with the effect of changing portfolio weights upon portfolio volatility. They are also relevant to passive investors concerned about the effects of increased concentration upon their benchmark indices, and to providers of stock market indices.

Die vorliegende Dissertation besteht aus drei Kapiteln über die Investmentfonds. Das erste Kapitel befasst sich mit der Rolle der Fondsmanager in der Bilanzverschönerung. Auf Basis der Analyse der Karrierewege von amerikanischen Fondsmanagern werden signifikante zusammenwirkende Manager-Fixed-Effects identifiziert, die nach der Kontrolle der endogenen Matching-Probleme immer noch robust sind. Die geschätzten Manager-Fixed-Effects haben signifikante Einflüsse auf die Out-of-Sample-Vorhersagen. Außerdem wird festgestellt, dass die Verriegelungen der Investmentfonds, die von gemeinsamen Managern verwaltet wurden, wichtige Kanäle für die Bilanzverschönerung verursachen. Das zweite Kapitel beschäftigt sich mit den Investmentstrategien der Fonds im Hinblick auf die Nutzung von Credit Default Swaps (CDS). Die Zuordnung der CDS-Positionen der Investmentfonds zu ihrem Bestandportfolio bietet eine neue Methodik zur Identifizierung der CDS-Strategien und kompensiert somit die Analysen der existierenden Literatur auf der Makroebene. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass die Anreize zur Risikoreduzierung die Spekulationsanreize dominieren, insbesondere, wenn die Kreditexposition durch ungedeckte Leerverkäufe der CDS-Verträge erhöht wird. Die erfahrenen Fondsmanager tendieren dazu, mehr Kreditrisiko in Kauf zu nehmen, während es für die Fondsmanagerinnen wahrscheinlicher als für ihre männlichen Kollegen ist, gegen das bestehende Risiko abzusichern. Der letzte Teil nimmt die Pleite von Lehman Brothers unter die Lupe, um sich mit der daraus resultierenden unerwarteten Schließung der CDS-Positionen als einem natürlichen Experiment auseinanderzusetzten. Diese Studie dient zur Untersuchung der Risiko- und Leistungsimplikationen der CDS-Investments der Fonds. Die Investmentfonds besitzen bei ihren CDS-Transaktionen im Durchschnitt einen beachtlichen Teil Extremrisiko. Während die CDS-Nutzer von guten Gesamtmarktlagen profitieren, erleiden sie unter Verlusten bei geclusterten Ausfällen. / This dissertation comprises of three chapters on mutual funds. The first chapter establishes the role of managers in the deceptive practice of window dressing. Employing comprehensive career history of U.S. mutual fund managers, I find strong jointly significant manager fixed effects, which are robust after addressing endogenous matching concerns. The estimated manager fixed effects are significant in making out-of-sample predictions. Further I establish that mutual fund interlocks through common managers are important channels that spread window dressing. The second chapter studies the investment strategies of mutual funds regarding their use of credit default swaps (CDS). Matches between mutual funds’ CDS positions and their underlying portfolio in the holdings facilitate a new approach in identifying CDS strategies that complements the “macro” level analyses in the existing literature. I find risk reducing incentives are dominated by speculative incentives, especially those to increase credit exposure via naked short CDS contracts. Experienced fund managers tend to take on more credit risk, while female managers are more likely to hedge comparing with their male peers. The third chapter employs the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the resulting sudden closures of CDS positions as a natural experiment to examine the risk and performance implications of mutual funds’ CDS investments. Funds on average load up on a significant amount of tail risk by trading CDS. While CDS users benefit when market conditions are favorable, they suffer during periods of clustered defaults.

We investigate the activity and performance of 64 Swedish registered mutual equity funds available in the Swedish Premium Pension System from October 2002 to December 2011. Fund activity is measured by applying the holdings based analysis Active Share combined with Tracking Error Volatility (TEV). Active Share is a relatively new measure that compares a fund’s holdings with its benchmark index constituents (Cremers & Petajisto, 2009; Petajisto, 2013). This is used as a proxy for the fund’s stock selection strategy. As a complement, TEV is used as a proxy for the factor timing strategy. Performance are measured by using Jensen’s (1968) model, Fama and French’s (1993) model and Carhart’s (1997) model. We document that Swedish funds in the Premium Pension System are relatively passive in term of Active Share compared to US funds. We attribute this finding to the relative number of stocks held by a fund compared to the market. Swedish equity funds hold a relatively larger share of the number of stocks in the Swedish market while US funds hold a relatively smaller share of the stocks in the US market. We run a panel regression analysis to test the relation between Active Share and various variables. We find that funds with higher TER fees and fewer stocks on average have higher Active Share. There are also indications that TEV is positively related to Active Share. However, the overall explanatory power of the variables is low. We attribute this as evidence that Active Share is an independent measure of fund activity. Overall, we find neutral performance for an equally weighted portfolio of all funds in the PPS. To examine the performance differences between different levels of activity, we sort funds into five portfolios based on Active Share and TEV. The results show that, given a medium-to-low TEV, funds with high Active Share significantly outperform funds with low Active Share. Furthermore, it appears that the fee rebate in the Premium Pension System is important especially for the passive funds. Without the rebate, the passive funds underperform significantly. We run a panel regression analysis on the future fund performance to test the predictive abilities of Active Share and TEV. The results indicate that Active Share does not explain future performance differences. Conversely, TEV is negatively related to future performance which can be explained by fund managers being overconfident

近年基金投資已然成為一般民眾重要的理財工具之一，而投資人最關注的顯然是基金績效的好壞，以及前績效好的基金在未來能否持續先前好的績效表現。因此本論文主要探討台灣的開放式股票型基金之績效、基金績效的持續性，以及投資人買賣基金的行為與基金績效之間的相互影響。論文第一部份是從隨機變數的觀點評估台灣的開放式股票型基金其夏普指標績效值，第二部份則以一般化的馬可夫模型－「漂移者—停駐者」模型評估基金績效持續性的動態行為，第三部份討論投資人的現金流量和基金績效之間的關聯性。 在第一部份的實證結果中，我們認為過去對夏普指標高的基金其績效較佳之想法必須修正，因為從隨機變數的觀點衡量基金的夏普指標值時，所有基金的績效均不顯著異於0。若與市場指數的夏普指標相比，並非所有基金經理人都能打敗市場，雖然以五年評估期間衡量基金績效時，有半數以上的基金其績效顯著優於市場指數，但在二年評估期間下只有極少數基金的績效顯著優於市場。第三，以拔靴法模擬基金的小樣本夏普指標分配時，仍然無法找到基金績效顯著大於零的證據。整體而言，本部份的研究認為從隨機變數的觀點衡量基金的夏普指標績效時，台灣的開放式股票型基金其績效超越市場的證據並不強。 第二部份以「漂移者—停駐者」模型衡量基金績效的動態持續性之實證結果，我們發現整體基金市場具有某種程度的績效持續性，但績效持續性的強弱程度隨著績效組別的不同而有差異，表現最佳與最差兩組基金的績效持續性高於績效中等基金，但整體基金的績效持續性並不很明顯。另外，績效最差組別的停駐基金比率為各組中最高，代表該組別基金的績效持續性較強。第二，基金績效持續性因績效指標的不同而有差異，主要差異反映在各績效組別裡停駐基金比率的估計。第三，「存活偏誤」的確對基金績效持續性的結果有影響，但主要影響反應在停駐基金比率的估計，而非績效漂移基金的轉換機率。第四，以概度比檢定驗證單純馬可夫鏈模型與「漂移者—停駐者」模型對資料的配適程度時，發現「漂移者—停駐者」模型較適合分析台灣開放式股票型基金的績效持續性。 就第三部份基金績效與投資人現金流量的討論，第一，實證結果支持台灣的開放式股票型基金其績效具有持續性，但整體市場的績效持續性並不顯著，其中季資料下基金績效的持續性證據最強，此部份與論文第二部份的結論一致。第二，前一季績效佳的基金在下一季能吸引投資人較多的現金流量，但是放入市場報酬率作為解釋因子後，我們發現投資人的現金流入隨著市場報酬率的上升而提高、隨著基金報酬率的增加而減少，因此投資人買賣基金的主要考量似乎是以市場整體走勢為主，而非基金前期績效。第三，投資人買賣基金的活動對基金後續績效並無影響，這可能是基金經理人的持股比率高於法令規定，或是投資人買入贖回基金的活動對績效的影響通常在數日內即已反應完畢。最後，討論經理人的流動性交易及訊息交易對基金後續績效的影響之前，我們發現基金前期績效的持續大約維持兩個月，但是加入流動性交易及訊息交易作為解釋變數後，基金績效的持續性減弱。 / Mutual funds have been a popular investment vehicle in recent years regardless of the growth of fund assets or numbers of beneficiaries. What investors mind are that whether mutual funds can provide higher return than others, star managers can persist previous dominant performance. For the reasons, we try to examine the performance of Taiwan mutual funds by Sharpe ratio index from new insights, and study mutual fund within best performance group can maintain antecedently superior performance. Finally, we attempt to investigate the relationship between fund performance and fund flows of open-ended stock fund in Taiwan. 1. We analysis the statistical distribution of the Sharpe ratio in Taiwan Mutual Funds developed by Lo(2002) and explore fund performance. First, we construct the confidence intervals of Sharpe ratio of Taiwan stock funds under different assumption for the return-generating process is independently and identically distributed returns (IID) and Non-IID but stationary, then, annualize Monthly Sharpe ratios by Time Aggregation technique. To avoid small sampling errors, we utilize bootstrap sampling conception to simulate the small sample distribution of Sharpe ratio of stock funds. We find that (1) there are not significant evidences that mutual funds in Taiwan have superior performance than riskless rate or market returns in several conditions. (2)By Bootstrapping sampling technique, we still cannot find stock funds have comparatively better performance than market indexes from empirical result. Accordingly, we believe that the usual methods about Sharpe ratios must be modified. That is, a mutual fund with higher Sharpe ratio is not necessarily a good performance, absolutely. Cause, Sharpe ratio index is not a constant, but a random variable, and we must build up its interval estimation and then test if there are significant differences between funds performance. Consequently, we argue it is relatively important to construct the performance-ranking system of mutual funds similar the bond credit-rating. 2. We employ the mover-stayer model to study the dynamics of performance persistence of mutual funds in Taiwan. This model provides us more detailed information about and help us further understand the nature of mutual fund performance persistence. We find (1) that there exists certain degree of persistence in mutual fund performance. Such persistence is, however, not very significant. It is because most funds are mover funds with unstable performance rather than stayer funds with consistence performance. More interestingly, funds within the best and the worst performance groups have more persistent performance than those within the middle performance group. It implies that in view of the previous mediocre performance, fund managers within the middle group have strong intention to improve their future performance. In addition, the fact that the worst performance group has the highest proportion of stayer funds implies that losers are more persistent than winners in Taiwan mutual fund industry. Overall, mutual funds in Taiwan have only weak performance persistence. (2) that consistent with the literature, the degree of persistence in performance is dependent on the performance evaluation criteria. It seems that this difference of degree of persistence is reflected in the estimation of stayer fund proportion, not in the estimation of the transition probability matrix of mover funds. (3) that there exists survivorship bias in our study. It mainly influences the estimation of stayer funds proportion, not that of the transition probability matrix of mover funds. Having said that , we believe that this bias will not alter the important conclusions of this article. 3. This part studies three important issues including the performance persistence of mutual funds, the relationship between mutual fund performance and investor fund flows, and the influence of investor fund flows on the performance of mutual funds. Our analyses are based on the data of mutual funds in Taiwan with three different frequencies that include monthly, quarterly, and yearly data. The methods we utilize to perform the analyses are those from Gruber (1996) and Edelen (1999). There are three main findings in this article: (1)During the sample period from 1996 to 2004, the evidence on the performance persistence of mutual funds in Taiwan is at best weak regardless of various risk-adjusted models and data frequencies. In sum, mutual funds in Taiwan do not perform persistently no matter how their performance is measured. (2)We are not able to discover a significant relationship between mutual fund performance and investor fund flows based on monthly data. This result is not consistent with that of Gruber (1996). However, this relationship becomes stronger if we look at quarterly data. In addition, the most interesting thing is that it seems that it is the quarterly stock market return that derives most of investor fund flows rather than the quarterly mutual fund performance itself. This result implies that the key factor for investors to decide whether to invest more capital into mutual funds is the overall market performance. In other words, the market sentiment may be the most importance factor that induces investors to purchase or sell mutual funds. (3) In contrast to the results of Edelen (1999), the liquidity-trading of fund managers induced by investor fund flows does not have a significant adverse effect on fund performance. Interestingly, the contemporaneous information-trading of fund managers has significant negative impact on fund performance while that in the previous month actually improves fund performance. Furthermore, the performance persistence normally lasts for two months but it diminishes when we incorporate both the liquidity-trading and information-trading of fund managers into the regressions.