The work analyses macroeconomic development of the Baltic States from the beginning of the 1990s until today and their position in the European Union evaluated on the basis of nominal and real convergence indicators. A significant part of the text is dedicated to the current economic crisis and to its impacts on the Baltic region. In this context, possible solutions and perspectives for future progress are suggested.

The subject of the diploma thesis is to evaluate the development in post-crisis years and to determine the impacts that affect the current financial investment environment in the USA but also its future and create the prerequisites for other risks, which the market can affect in the next perspective and influence the global development. On this basis, a portfolio of the mutual fund will be drawn up, according to the assignment of its manager with an alternative investment component, which can adequately complement it in the current period of low interest rates.