[pt] A introdução do carro Flex-fuel no mercado brasileiro em 2003 mudou a forma de decisão do consumidor. Se antes era necessário escolher o combustível pelo tipo de veículo, movido somente a gasolina ou somente a álcool, hoje é possível escolher um tipo de carro com duas opções de combustível. O carro Flex funciona com gasolina, etanol ou qualquer mistura desses combustíveis em qualquer proporção. Essa flexibilidade gera uma vantagem econômica para o seu proprietário, mas qual o benefício financeiro de um carro Flex-fuel em comparação a um carro movido somente à gasolina? Geograficamente, onde se localiza o proprietário que se beneficia mais dessa flexibilidade? Este estudo aplica a Teoria de Opções Reais na análise do valor da opção do carro Flex para as cinco regiões geográficas do Brasil: Nordeste, Norte, Centro-Oeste, Sudeste e Sul. São atendidas tanto as diferenças de preços regionais quanto a preferência de automóvel do consumidor dessas regiões. Para esse propósito, são considerados que os preços históricos dos combustíveis são estocásticos e seguem o Movimento de Reversão à Média Aritmético. A previsão dos preços e o valor da opção são gerados através da Simulação de Monte Carlo. Os resultados indicam que a opção de escolher o combustível mais barato no abastecimento adiciona considerável valor para o proprietário do carro Flex em todas as regiões e modelos de carro considerados, sendo a região Sudeste a mais beneficiada pela opção Flex. / [en] The introduction of the Flex-fuel car to the Brazilian market in 2003 changed the way of decision of the customers. If before it was necessary to choose the fuel by the kind of vehicle, fueled only by gas or only by sugarcane ethanol, today it is possible to choose one kind of car with two fuel possibilities. The Flexfuel car can run with gas, sugarcane ethanol or any mix of those fuels at any proportion. This resulting flexibility generates an economic advantage for the car’s owners, but what are the finance benefits of having a Flex-fuel car in comparison to a gas-powered car? Where is geographically located the owner which benefits more from this flexibility? This study applies the Real Option method to analyze the option value of the Flex-fuel cars in each of the five geographic regions of Brazil: Northeast, North, Central-West, Southeast and South. It regards regional prices differences and their customer’s car preference. For this purpose, it considers that the historical fuel prices are stochastic and follow the Arithmetic Mean Reverting diffusion process. Monte Carlo Simulation provides the forecasted fuel prices and option values. The results show that the option to choose the cheapest fuel at the refueling moment adds significant value for the owner of all the regions and car models considered. The Southeast region is the most benefited from it.

Closed-end funds (CEFs) are popular investments amongst the Swedish population as they provide diversification to investors and have in many cases historically outperformed the market. In deciding whether to invest in a CEF, the method of valuation differs from classical financial ratios used to value most companies, as the revenue-bringing operations differ significantly. The Net Asset Value (NAV) per share is compared to the market price per share of a CEF, to determine if the share is traded at a discount or premium. The purpose is based upon the rationalization that a share’s market price and the value of the closed-end fund’s underlying assets cannot drift too far apart from each other. In other words, the discount cannot drift too far from its mean over time, as there would be an upward pressure on the share price if the NAV-discount is large, and a downward pressure on the share price if the premium is large. Tests of unit roots and cointegration are applied and analysed in the light of previous findings for discounts in CEFs. Our findings show that the majority of selected CEFs’ prices and NAVs have long-run equilibrium relationships. Additionally, the discount appears to be stationary over time for the majority of CEFs, supporting the notion of mean reversion in the discount. For certain Swedish CEFs, the findings allow for investment decisions to be made upon the deviation from the mean. This study contributes to previous research done on the topic of mean reversion in the financial market as it finds statistical evidence of mean-reverting process for the NAV-discount of Swedish CEFs. The thesis also provides additional value to the plethora of research provided in the financial field as it specifies its findings to the Swedish market of CEFs.

The aim of this study is to examine classical Dow-strategies, Dogs of the Dow and Foolish Four relative to each other and OMXS30GI in order to test if promises of substantial returns would be kept on the Swedish stock market during the period 2002-2019. Our empirical findings show no statistically significant excess-return generated by the Foolish Four-strategy over neither the Dogs of the Dow-strategy nor OMXS30GI. Furthermore, we found that the Dogs of the Dow-strategy produced a statistically significant excess-return over benchmark OMXS30GI, however excess-return does not remain after excluding years of great market turmoil.

[pt] O Brasil é um país cuja matriz elétrica é fortemente dependente da geração por usinas hidrelétricas. Dentro desse cenário, a utilização de usinas termelétricas a biomassa representa uma alternativa vantajosa, pois associa a diversificação da matriz energética brasileira à utilização de fontes renováveis, além de não ser poluidora como suas contrapartes movidas a combustíveis fósseis não renováveis como óleo combustível e gás. Este estudo teve como objetivo realizar a avaliação econômica de um projeto de investimento em uma usina termelétrica a biomassa, adotando estratégias com e sem flexibilidades gerenciais e operacionais, de forma a identificar a metodologia de avaliação mais adequada ao projeto em questão. Na estratégia sem flexibilidade foi adotado o método do fluxo de caixa descontado. Já nas estratégias com incertezas e flexibilidades, foram incorporadas as incertezas referentes ao mercado de energia elétrica e as flexibilidades relacionadas à possibilidade da usina comercializar a energia elétrica gerada integral ou parcialmente nos mercados de longo ou curto prazo. Além disso, há a possibilidade de instalação de uma usina de briquetagem, que permitiria a planta comercializar energia elétrica no mercado de curto prazo ou biomassa em formato de briquetes, dependendo do que for economicamente mais interessante. Os resultados obtidos indicam que a existência de incertezas e flexibilidades gerenciais aumenta o valor do projeto e reduzem significativamente o risco de insucesso do mesmo, o que reforça a idéia de que a avaliação por opções reais, apesar de mais complexa, pode ser mais adequada para determinar o real valor do projeto. / [en] Brazil is a country whose energy matrix is strongly dependent on generation by hydropower plants. Within this scenario, the use of biomass power plants represents an attractive alternative, since it associates the diversification of the Brazilian energy matrix with the use of renewable sources, and is not as polluting as their counterparts moved to non-renewable fossil fuels such as oil and gas. This study aimed to conduct the economic evaluation of an investment in a project of a biomass power plant, considering strategies with and without managerial and operational flexibilities, in order to identify the best methodology for evaluating the project in question. In the strategy without flexibilities, the discounted cash flow method was adopted. In the strategies with uncertainties and flexibilities, the uncertainties related to the electricity market and flexibilities related to the possibility of selling the electricity generated in the long or short term markets were incorporated into the analysis. Moreover, there is the possibility of installing a briquetting plant, which would allow the plant to choose between selling electricity in the short term market or briquettes, whichever is more economically interesting. The results indicate that the existence of uncertainties and managerial flexibilities increases the value of the project and reduces significantly the risk of failure, which reinforces the idea that the evaluation with real options, though more complex, can be more appropriate to determine the actual value of the project.

This dissertation is based on the hypothesis that a third dimension, namely investment time horizon, can add value to the more conventional two-dimensional methodology of assessing the relative risk and return attributes of various assets and portfolios in order to enhance investment decisions. This study shows that time horizons should be considered in the investment decision making process and provides concrete evidence that a methodology that is not cognizant of investment time horizon is prone to extensive long-term opportunity cost risk. In addition to providing evidence of investment time horizon relevance, the study makes suggestions as to how time horizons could be incorporated into the risk return assessments of various asset classes and also presents a framework for the more holistic assessment of asset class properties while incorporating time horizons. / Business Management / Thesis (M. Com. (Business Management))

[pt] Esta Pesquisa tem por objetivo utilizar a Regressão Simbólica por Programação Genética para encontrar uma equação analítica para a fronteira de exercício ótima (ou curva de gatilho) de uma opção sobre um ativo do qual o preço tem um comportamento simulado pelo processo estocástico conhecido como processo de reversão à média (PRM). Para o cálculo do valor de uma opção desde de sua aquisição até sua maturação, normalmente faz-se o uso do cálculo da fronteira de exercício ótimo. Esta curva separa ao longo do tempo a decisão de exercer ou não a opção. Sabendo-se que já existem soluções analíticas para calcular a fronteira de exercício ótimo quando o preço do ativo segue um Movimento Geométrico Browniano, e que tal solução genérica ainda não foi encontrada para o PRM, neste trabalho, foi proposto o uso da Programação Genética (PG) para encontrar tal solução analítica. A Programação Genética utilizou um conjunto de amostras de curvas de exercício ótimo parametrizadas segundo a variação da volatilidade e da taxa de juros livre de risco, para encontrar uma função analítica para a fronteira de exercício ótima, obtendo-se resultados satisfatórios. / [en] This research intends on to use the Symbolic Regression by Genetic Programming to find an analytical equation that represents an Optimal Exercise Boundary for an option of an asset having its price behavior simulated by a stochastic process known as Mean Reversion Process (MRP). To calculate an option value since its acquisition until its maturity, normally is used to calculate the Optimal Exercise Boundary. This frontier separates along the time the decision to exercise the option or not. Knowing there already are analytical solutions used to calculate the Optimal Exercise Boundary when the asset price follows the Geometric Brownian Motion, and such general solution was not found yet to MRP, in this work, it was proposed the use of Genetic Programming to find such analytical solution. The Genetic Programming used an amount of samples from optimal exercise curves parameterized according the change in the volatility and risk free interest rate, to find an analytical function that represents Optimal Exercise Boundary, achieving satisfactory results.

本論文是二篇探討與股票價格平均數復歸現象有關的實證文章。在第一篇文章中，我們將探討由於廠商特質所產生資金供需雙方訊息的非對稱，而引發的流動性限制對廠商股票價格行為的潛在影響；在第二篇文章中，我們研究的課題是在漲跌幅限制下，交易量與股票報酬自我相關的關係。 第一篇文章主要在探討由於廠商特質所產生資金供需雙方訊息的非對稱，而引發的流動性限制對廠商股票價格行為的影響。我們利用五個廠商特質－所有權結構、集團企業成員、上市時間、公司規模與現金股利的發放，定義面臨流動性限制的廠商，並使用變異數比率衡量股票價格平均數復歸的現象，由於小樣本的問題，我們將利用拔靴法檢定假說：廠商的流動性限制會強化其股票價格平均數復歸的行為。我們的實證結果並不一致，所有權結構、公司規模和集團企業成員的分組實證結果支持我們的假說，流動性限制會強化平均數復歸的行為；而上市時間與現金股利發放的分組實證結果並不支持我們的假說。 在第二篇文章中，我們使用與Campbell et. al. (1993)相同的實證模型，討論在漲跌幅限制下，交易量與股票日報酬自我相關的關係。由於漲跌幅限制的存在，當股票價格觸及漲跌幅上下限時，即停止交易，而使得真正的股票價格無法觀察到，因而未實現之需求或供給將會傳遞至下一個交易日，將使傳統OLS或其衍生方法的估計產生偏誤，而使用Chou和Chib (1995)與Chou (1995)所提的Gibbs抽樣法則可以成功地克服這些困難。所以，本文將應用Chou和Chib (1995)與Chou (1995)的Gibbs抽樣法來衡量台灣股票市場交易量對股票日報酬自我相關係數的影響，以避免漲跌幅限制的影響。本文採用台灣證交所編製的綜合股價指數所採樣的二十四家公司為樣本，利用日資料進行實證分析，實證結果支持「交易量效果」的存在。且在實證過程中，發現台灣股票市場股票日報酬的正自我相關有可能是漲跌幅限制的存在而造成的。

One could argue that the most discussed topic in finance is whether or not it is possible to “beat the market”. Even though many people claim to do this, there is little evidence to support the idea that one can consistently beat the market over a long period of time. There are indeed several examples of investors who have managed to outperform the market consistently for a long time, but the efforts of these individuals or institutions could by many be considered to be pure luck. One of the many strategies that have been evaluated by several researchers and is said to generate a risk adjusted return greater than that of the market, is one based on the P/E-effect. This strategy is based on the financial ratio P/E – price divided by earnings – and used by constructing portfolios consisting of stocks with low P/E ratios. Several studies have confirmed the existence of the P/E-effect on various stock markets around the world and over different time periods. On the Swedish market, however, few studies have generated the same results. Most of these studies can be considered to be insufficient with regards to sample sizes and methods, spawning a need for more extensive studies. We have examined the P/E strategy on the Swedish Stock Exchange (SSE) between 2004 and 2012. The sample included 358 companies (excluding financial companies) with available necessary data. The stocks were divided into five portfolios based on their yearly P/E ratios (low to high), upon which the monthly returns of the individual stocks were calculated using a logarithmic formula. The returns were also risk adjusted using the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM), followed by a regression analysis to see if possible abnormal returns could be considered to be statistically significant for the examined time period. The results of our study indicate that the P/E effect is not present on the Swedish Stock Exchange during the examined time period, and we therefore conclude that it was not possible to utilize a strategy based on the P/E effect between 2004 and 2012 in order to achieve an abnormal return. The results can be used to argue that the Swedish stock market is more efficient than for example the U.S. stock market where the P/E effect has been found to exist.

The five essays in this dissertation are all concerned with how commodity price uncertainty affects the valuation of real and financial assets.  Focusing on the stochastic process approximating the price process of the commodity, a time-inhomogeneous mean reverting process is suggested and used in the valuation of a pulp mill.  Also an analytic approximation and a parameter estimation procedure to a stochastic volatility option-pricing model are developed.  Generally, the large valuation differences and hedging errors that occur for different assumptions about the price process indicate the importance of an appropriately specified price process.  The dissertation provides examples of this. The question of whether commodity prices are mean reverting or follow a random walk is also studied.  Using a large database with close to 300 different commodities, econometric tests favour a random walk.  There are very few exceptions.  However, when applied to an option pricing model, the time-inhomogeneous mean reverting process gives smaller hedging errors than the traditional Black-Scholes model based on a random walk.  The results are therefore inconclusive, although mean reversion seems more predominant than econometric tests reveal. / Diss. Stockholm : Handelshögskolan, 2003

This thesis presents a collection of papers that has been published, accepted or submitted for publication. They assess price, volatility and market relationships in the five regional electricity markets in the Australian National Electricity Market (NEM): namely, New South Wales (NSW), Queensland (QLD), South Australia (SA), the Snowy Mountains Hydroelectric Scheme (SNO) and Victoria (VIC). The transmission networks that link regional systems via interconnectors across the eastern states have played an important role in the connection of the regional markets into an efficient national electricity market. During peak periods, the interconnectors become congested and the NEM separates into its regions, promoting price differences across the market and exacerbating reliability problems in regional utilities. This thesis is motivated in part by the fact that assessment of these prices and volatility within and between regional markets allows for better forecasts by electricity producers, transmitters and retailers and the efficient distribution of energy on a national level. The first two papers explore whether the lagged price and volatility information flows of the connected spot electricity markets can be used to forecast the pricing behaviour of individual markets. A multivariate generalised autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity (MGARCH) model is used to identify the source and magnitude of price and volatility spillovers within (intra-relationship) and across (inter-relationship) the various spot markets. The results show evidence of the fact that prices in one market can be explained by their own price lagged one-period and are independent of lagged spot prices of any other markets when daily data is employed. This implies that the regional spot electricity markets are not fully integrated. However, there is also evidence of a large number of significant ownvolatility and cross-volatility spillovers in all five markets indicating that shocks in some markets will affect price volatility in others. Similar conclusions are obtained when the daily data are disaggregated into peak and off-peak periods, suggesting that the spot electricity markets are still rather isolated. These results inspired the research underlying the third paper of the thesis on modelling the dynamics of spot electricity prices in each regional market. A family of generalised autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity (GARCH), RiskMetrics, normal Asymmetric Power ARCH (APARCH), Student APARCH and skewed Student APARCH is used to model the time-varying variance in prices with the inclusion of news arrival as proxied by the contemporaneous volume of demand, time-of-day, day-of-week and month-of-year effects as exogenous explanatory variables. The important contribution in this paper lies in the use of two latter methodologies, namely, the Student APARCH and skewed Student APARCH which take account of the skewness and fat tailed characteristics of the electricity spot price series. The results indicate significant innovation spillovers (ARCH effects) and volatility spillovers (GARCH effects) in the conditional standard deviation equation, even with market and calendar effects included. Intraday prices also exhibit significant asymmetric responses of volatility to the flow of information (that is, positive shocks or good news are associated with higher volatility than negative shocks or bad news). The fourth research paper attempts to capture salient feature of price hikes or spikes in wholesale electricity markets. The results show that electricity prices exhibit stronger mean-reversion after a price spike than the mean-reversion in the normal period, suggesting the electricity price quickly returns from some extreme position (such as a price spike) to equilibrium; this is, extreme price spikes are shortlived. Mean-reversion can be measured in a separate regime from the normal regime using Markov probability transition to identify the different regimes. The fifth and final paper investigates whether interstate/regional trade has enhanced the efficiency of each spot electricity market. Multiple variance ratio tests are used to determine if Australian spot electricity markets follow a random walk; that is, if they are informationally efficient. The results indicate that despite the presence of a national market only the Victorian market during the off-peak period is informationally (or market) efficient and follows a random walk. This thesis makes a significant contribution in estimating the volatility and the efficiency of the wholesale electricity prices by employing four advanced time series techniques that have not been previously explored in the Australian context. An understanding of the modelling and forecastability of electricity spot price volatility across and within the Australian spot markets is vital for generators, distributors and market regulators. Such an understanding influences the pricing of derivative contracts traded on the electricity markets and enables market participants to better manage their financial risks.