This thesis examines and extends research into option price modeling in the South African market with a particular focus on its most important parameter, namely the volatility of the underlying. The primary objective of the thesis therefore is to offer an option price model that takes account of the conditions of the environment prevailing in South Africa. The initial aim of the thesis is to describe the behaviour of the volatility in the South African market. This is achieved by conducting three empirical examinations using data from the South African Futures Exchange (SAFEX). The empirical examinations are partly based on standard methodologies (that have been modified in the thesis) and partly based on original methodologies adapted for the South African environment.

Bibliography: pages 144-152. / Following international trends, the South African unit trust industry has become one of the fastest growing forms of investment in our financial market. Since the first fund was established in 1965, the industry has grown to over 100 funds with more than 20 companies managing these funds. Since 1990 there has been particularly rapid growth in 'Specialist Equity Funds' with more than 30 new 'specialist' unit trusts emerging. Specialist equity fund managers usually concentrate their investments on a particular sector of the economy or alternately aim to satisfy specific characteristic investment objectives. Two classes of specialist equity funds, namely Index funds and International funds, have emerged recently in our unit trust industry and are receiving increasing attention from the investment community. Much attention therefore is given to these funds in this thesis. The growing importance of the unit trust industry has heightened the need to effectively and accurately measure the performance of managed funds. A wealth of literature exists in this field and a number of models have been developed to measure the performance of managed funds and the fund managers themselves. This thesis reviews and demonstrates the implementation of these various measures with the emphasis on providing a practical interpretation of each measure. Although the recent development of Index funds and International funds has received considerable attention in the financial media, little attention has been paid to the technical aspects of the construction of these funds in the academic literature. To the authors knowledge there has been no published research on the construction of Index funds or International funds in South Africa. This thesis examines approaches to constructing Index funds and International funds and empirically assesses these approaches on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE).

Bibliography: p. 111-114. / This thesis provides an investigation of the applicability of time series analysis to the process of economic model building. Chapter l explains the position of the Box-Jenkins approach to time series analysis in relation to other techniques of analysis. In Chapters 2 and 3 the theory of model building is discussed. In Chapter 4 an econometric model is analysed in detail from a time series approach.

Ce travail de recherche traite du problème d'identification et de prédiction des tendances d'une série financière considérée dans un cadre multivarié. Le cadre d'étude de ce problème, inspiré de l'apprentissage automatique, est défini dans le chapitre I. L'hypothèse des marchés efficients, qui entre en contradiction avec l'objectif de prédiction des tendances, y est d'abord rappelée, tandis que les différentes écoles de pensée de l'analyse de marché, qui s'opposent dans une certaine mesure à l'hypothèse des marchés efficients, y sont également exposées. Nous explicitons les techniques de l'analyse fondamentale, de l'analyse technique et de l'analyse quantitative, et nous nous intéressons particulièrement aux techniques de l'apprentissage statistique permettant le calcul de prédictions sur séries temporelles. Les difficultés liées au traitement de facteurs temporellement dépendants et/ou non-stationnaires sont soulignées, ainsi que les pièges habituels du surapprentrissage et de la manipulation imprudente des données. Les extensions du cadre classique de l'apprentissage statistique, particulièrement l'apprentissage par transfert, sont présentées. La contribution principale de ce chapitre est l'introduction d'une méthodologie de recherche permettant le développement de modèles numériques de prédiction de tendances. Cette méthodologie est fondée sur un protocole d'expérimentation, constitué de quatre modules. Le premier module, intitulé Observation des Données et Choix de Modélisation, est un module préliminaire dévoué à l'expression de choix de modélisation, d'hypothèses et d'objectifs très généraux. Le second module, Construction de Bases de Données, transforme la variable cible et les variables explicatives en facteurs et en labels afin d'entraîner les modèles numériques de prédiction de tendances. Le troisième module, intitulé Construction de Modèles, a pour but la construction de modèles numériques de prédiction de tendances. Le quatrième et dernier module, intitulé Backtesting et Résultats Numériques, évalue la précision des modèles de prédiction de tendances sur un ensemble de test significatif, à l'aide de deux procédures génériques de backtesting. Le première procédure renvoie les taux de reconnaissance des tendances de hausse et de baisse. La seconde construit des règles de trading au moyen des predictions calculées sur l'ensemble de test. Le résultat (P&L) de chacune des règles de trading correspond aux gains et aux pertes accumulés au cours de la période de test. De plus, ces procédures de backtesting sont complétées par des fonctions d'interprétation, qui facilite l'analyse du mécanisme décisionnel des modèles numériques. Ces fonctions peuvent être des mesures de la capacité de prédiction des facteurs, ou bien des mesures de fiabilité des modèles comme des prédictions délivrées. Elles contribuent de façon décisive à la formulation d'hypothèses mieux adaptées aux données, ainsi qu'à l'amélioration des méthodes de représentation et de construction de bases de données et de modèles. Ceci est explicité dans le chapitre IV. Les modèles numériques, propres à chacune des méthodes de construction de modèles décrites au chapitre IV, et visant à prédire les tendances des variables cibles introduites au chapitre II, sont en effet calculés et backtestés. Les raisons du passage d'une méthode de construction de modèles à une autre sont particulièrement étayées. L'influence du choix des paramètres - et ceci à chacune des étapes du protocole d'expérimentation - sur la formulation de conclusions est elle aussi mise en lumière. La procédure PPVR, qui ne requiert aucun calcul annexe de paramètre, a ainsi été utilisée pour étudier de façon fiable l'hypothèse des marchés efficients. De nouvelles directions de recherche pour la construction de modèles prédictifs sont finalement proposées. / This research work studies the problem of identifying and predicting the trends of a single financial target variable in a multivariate setting. The machine learning point of view on this problem is presented in chapter I. The efficient market hypothesis, which stands in contradiction with the objective of trend prediction, is first recalled. The different schools of thought in market analysis, which disagree to some extent with the efficient market hypothesis, are reviewed as well. The tenets of the fundamental analysis, the technical analysis and the quantitative analysis are made explicit. We particularly focus on the use of machine learning techniques for computing predictions on time-series. The challenges of dealing with dependent and/or non-stationary features while avoiding the usual traps of overfitting and data snooping are emphasized. Extensions of the classical statistical learning framework, particularly transfer learning, are presented. The main contribution of this chapter is the introduction of a research methodology for developing trend predictive numerical models. It is based on an experimentation protocol, which is made of four interdependent modules. The first module, entitled Data Observation and Modeling Choices, is a preliminary module devoted to the statement of very general modeling choices, hypotheses and objectives. The second module, Database Construction, turns the target and explanatory variables into features and labels in order to train trend predictive numerical models. The purpose of the third module, entitled Model Construction, is the construction of trend predictive numerical models. The fourth and last module, entitled Backtesting and Numerical Results, evaluates the accuracy of the trend predictive numerical models over a "significant" test set via two generic backtesting plans. The first plan computes recognition rates of upward and downward trends. The second plan designs trading rules using predictions made over the test set. Each trading rule yields a profit and loss account (P&L), which is the cumulated earned money over time. These backtesting plans are additionally completed by interpretation functionalities, which help to analyze the decision mechanism of the numerical models. These functionalities can be measures of feature prediction ability and measures of model and prediction reliability. They decisively contribute to formulating better data hypotheses and enhancing the time-series representation, database and model construction procedures. This is made explicit in chapter IV. Numerical models, aiming at predicting the trends of the target variables introduced in chapter II, are indeed computed for the model construction methods described in chapter III and thoroughly backtested. The switch from one model construction approach to another is particularly motivated. The dramatic influence of the choice of parameters - at each step of the experimentation protocol - on the formulation of conclusion statements is also highlighted. The RNN procedure, which does not require any parameter tuning, has thus been used to reliably study the efficient market hypothesis. New research directions for designing trend predictive models are finally discussed.

This research work studies the problem of identifying and predicting the trends of a single financial target variable in a multivariate setting. The machine learning point of view on this problem is presented in chapter I. The efficient market hypothesis, which stands in contradiction with the objective of trend prediction, is first recalled. The different schools of thought in market analysis, which disagree to some extent with the efficient market hypothesis, are reviewed as well. The tenets of the fundamental analysis, the technical analysis and the quantitative analysis are made explicit. We particularly focus on the use of machine learning techniques for computing predictions on time-series. The challenges of dealing with dependent and/or non-stationary features while avoiding the usual traps of overfitting and data snooping are emphasized. Extensions of the classical statistical learning framework, particularly transfer learning, are presented. The main contribution of this chapter is the introduction of a research methodology for developing trend predictive numerical models. It is based on an experimentation protocol, which is made of four interdependent modules. The first module, entitled Data Observation and Modeling Choices, is a preliminary module devoted to the statement of very general modeling choices, hypotheses and objectives. The second module, Database Construction, turns the target and explanatory variables into features and labels in order to train trend predictive numerical models. The purpose of the third module, entitled Model Construction, is the construction of trend predictive numerical models. The fourth and last module, entitled Backtesting and Numerical Results, evaluates the accuracy of the trend predictive numerical models over a "significant" test set via two generic backtesting plans. The first plan computes recognition rates of upward and downward trends. The second plan designs trading rules using predictions made over the test set. Each trading rule yields a profit and loss account (P&L), which is the cumulated earned money over time. These backtesting plans are additionally completed by interpretation functionalities, which help to analyze the decision mechanism of the numerical models. These functionalities can be measures of feature prediction ability and measures of model and prediction reliability. They decisively contribute to formulating better data hypotheses and enhancing the time-series representation, database and model construction procedures. This is made explicit in chapter IV. Numerical models, aiming at predicting the trends of the target variables introduced in chapter II, are indeed computed for the model construction methods described in chapter III and thoroughly backtested. The switch from one model construction approach to another is particularly motivated. The dramatic influence of the choice of parameters - at each step of the experimentation protocol - on the formulation of conclusion statements is also highlighted. The RNN procedure, which does not require any parameter tuning, has thus been used to reliably study the efficient market hypothesis. New research directions for designing trend predictive models are finally discussed.

Whatever country gives up its currency and adopts the currency of the common union, has to count on some impacts. The country loses its exchange rate convergential channel and the convergency is running throught the inflation. The level of the inflation pain depends on the difference in the economic level between those two areas, i.e. Hungary and the European Union. If Hungary adopts euro, it would lead to high inflation and numerous shocks due to Hungarian low level of convergency and different monetary policy transmission mechanism. Hungary has no chance to avoid adoption of euro in the log run, but if it keeps forint for at least a few years, Hungary can expect a tolerable inflation, more natural convergential process and the possibility to use its own monetary policy, which in Hungary is based right on the exchange rate channel of monetary transmission.