Yes / This paper examines the role of institutional investor sentiment in determination of the beta-return relation. Empirical evidence documents a positive (negative) beta-return relation over bearish (bullish) periods, implying that institutional investors can also be sentiment traders.

This essay will compare the capital asset pricing model (CAPM), Fama and French threefactor model and Carhart´s four-factor model, to see which of these models that can explain portfolio excess returns best on the Swedish stock market. This thesis will tempt to validate the three and four-factor models because of the limited amount of research done on the Swedish stock market. The results indicate that the three-factor model improves explanatory power for portfolio returns in comparison to the CAPM, and the four-factor model gives a small improvement in the explanatory power compared to the three-factor model. The results also indicate that all models have a low explanatory power when the market is volatile.

<p>1.3. Research Questions.</p><p>With this in mind, the research questions of this work are:</p><p>1. Is the Capital Asset Pricing Model still applicable despite the heavy impact of the financial crisis on the financial systems?</p><p>2. What happens to this model when the risk free rate approaches zero?</p><p>3. Is there a relationship between the riskiness of an asset and the risk-free interestrate when the latter is approaching the zero level?</p>

1.3. Research Questions. With this in mind, the research questions of this work are: 1. Is the Capital Asset Pricing Model still applicable despite the heavy impact of the financial crisis on the financial systems? 2. What happens to this model when the risk free rate approaches zero? 3. Is there a relationship between the riskiness of an asset and the risk-free interestrate when the latter is approaching the zero level?

Univ., Diss.--Stockholm, 2006. / Enth. 3 Beitr.

Universiẗat, Diss./07--Ingolstadt, 2006.

Calif., Univ., Dep. of Management Science and Engineering, Diss.--Stanford, 2004. / Kopie, ersch. im Verl. UMI, Ann Arbor, Mich. - Enth. 4 Beitr.

Minn., Univ. of Minnesota, Diss.--Minneapolis, 2004. / Kopie, ersch. im Verl. UMI, Ann Arbor, Mich. - Enth. 3 Beitr.

Conn., Yale Univ., Diss.--New Haven, 2005. / Kopie, ersch. im Verl. UMI, Ann Arbor, Mich. - Enth. 3 Beitr.

Ill., Northwestern Univ., Diss.--Evanston, 2003. / Kopie, ersch. im Verl. UMI, Ann Arbor, Mich. - Enth. 4 Beitr.