This thesis deals with problems of the technical analyses and its usage during creation of the automated trading systems. Theoretical section explains the basic principles of functioning of the monetary market (Forex) and includes technical indicators. Portfolio of strategies, as output of this work, was applied onto monetary pairs of Euro/American dollar and British pound/American dollar. Computer program Adaptrade Builder was used for proposed commercial strategies with help of the genetic algorithms and subsequently tested on the MetaTrader 4 commercial platform.

The thesis deals with designing an automated trading system, especially for intra-day trading the currency markets. The aim is to create a comprehensive theoretical background, practical work knowledge can be used to develop appropriate automated trading system. The thesis is an emphasis on technical and partly a psychological analysis of currency markets. Designed system will be suitably optimized to maximize profits and stability of applications on the most liquid currency pairs.

The thesis examines the strategy of country momentum and is evaluated with 30 different country exchange-traded funds (ETFs) for the period 1996-2018. The empirical evaluation is designed to apply different formation- and holding periods with overlapping portfolios. The results show positive momentum returns in various periods and a few portfolios present a higher average return than the market. However, none of the portfolios is presenting any significant positive returns or alphas, meaning that the three hypotheses cannot be rejected. On the other hand, some portfolios have higher Sharpe ratios and Morningstar value than the market. Thus, meaning that the individual investor could prefer the momentum portfolio over the market despite the insignificant returns.

This study investigates whether financial globalization influences emerging markets by examining the correlation between a global market in relation to emerging markets. By constructing yearly correlation coefficients through collecting daily return from index markets, financial contagion can be detected. International trade serves as a measurement for financial globalization, in the context of the continuation of globalization in the world. Through the progress of creating the correlation coefficients, the significance of trade globalization has been identified along with the relationship the correlation coefficients have with it. Leading to the conclusion that financial globalization does impact the emerging markets and have done so throughout the timespan of 25 years.

The relationship between national culture and CSR has received increased attention over the past few decades. However, to date, the results of this relationship are inconclusive as they show positive, negative, and non-significant results. Moreover, the results are outdated as only the first four dimensions of the Hofstede framework have been researched thoroughly, while the two newest dimensions have received very little attention with regards to their relationship to CSR. The key objective of this study is to contribute to the debate by testing the influence of power distance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism, masculinity, long-term orientation, and indulgence on CSR. This is done by analyzing 215 companies from 23 different countries, which are on the Forbes 2000 list. Furthermore, the moderating role of state of development is assessed in this context, by using the distinction made in the MSCI ACWI Index. By conducting a moderated multiple regression analysis, mixed results were found on the influence of national culture on CSR, which could be ascribed to a difference in sample. Moreover, the influence of state of development was not significant in the main regression, however, it gave interesting opportunities for future research. The findings of this study thereby add to the body of knowledge on national culture, CSR, and state of development, and provide several theoretical and managerial implications.

Most modern electricity markets do not guarantee that generation is reliable and sufficient to provide all consumer’s electricity needs at all times. This is due to design-flaws and regulatory intervention. During the coming decades, increased electricity demand and decarbonization trends will affect the electricity market greatly. As the share of wind and solar power increases in the generation mix, the inertia in the power system is expected to decrease. This can potentially increase the systems exposure to blackout risk. Therefore, it is important to ensure that electricity is traded in a way that ensures enough supply even during scarcity events. The study aims to compare six different capacity market designs that are widely discussed in the scientific literature. Furthermore, this study uses MATLAB to simulate how the utility for the strategic reserve in Sweden has changed over the past few years. The study finds no ideal capacity market design but concludes that different solutions come with their own advantages and trade-offs. The simulation results show that the utility of the strategic reserve in Sweden has increased during the last few years. Additionally, the simulation results suggest that demand for the strategic result varies on a daily time frame. / De flesta moderna elmarknader kan inte garantera pålitlig och tillräcklig produktion för att tillgodose konsumenters elbehov under alla tillfällen. Detta har att göra med brister i designen av elnätet och regleringar. Under de kommande decennierna kommer trender inom avkarbonisering att ha stor inverkan på elmarknaden. Med en ökande andel vind och solkraft som kraftproduktionsslag förväntas trögheten i kraftsystemet att minska. Detta kan potentiellt höja systemets utsatthet för strömavbrott. Därför är det viktigt att el handlas på ett sätt som försäkrar tillräcklig elförsörjning även under fall då produktionen är begränsad. Med målet att jämföra sex olika designer av kapacitetsmarknader som är etablerade i tidigare forskningsstudier. Vidare använder denna studie MATLAB för att simulera hur behovet av effektreserven i Sverige har ändrats under de senaste åren. Studien finner ingen ideal design för en kapacitetsmarknad, men fastställer att olika lösningar har sina egna fördelar och avvägningar. Studien finner vidare att behovet av effektreserven har ökat under de senaste åren. Dessutom indikerar simuleringsresultaten att behovet av effektreserven varierar med elbehovet under dag. / Kandidatexjobb i elektroteknik 2022, KTH, Stockholm

<p>  </p> <p>Cattle derived food, like beef and dairy, have long been a staple of our human diets and continue to be prominent in our days. This prominence and their relevance naturally extend to our economies. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service (2022), cattle production is the most important agricultural industry in the US representing about 17% of the $391 billion total cash receipts for agricultural commodities in 2021.</p> <p><br></p> <p>Economists have looked into cattle derived products from a wide array of perspectives focusing on the product itself, for example beef, but also in the forces of supply and demand that at times are external to product attributes. The effect of supply and demand shocks on agricultural markets have been heavily considered in the literature (Thomsen and McKenzie, 2001; McKenzie and Thomsen, 2001; Lusk and Schroeder, 2002, Piggott and Marsh, 2004). Yet another important aspect of agricultural markets is price determination and the body of literature in this area is ample (Tomek & Robinson, 2003). Recent phenomena in the world, like the availability of information, good or bad, in the most current, voluminous and accessible way that we have ever seen, could be a new force in price determination of agricultural products. My research contributes to such strains of literature by investigating perceptions and willingness to pay for beef attributes, market shocks in beef markets, and the role of online media in dairy prices.</p> <p><br></p> <p>Beef attributes, and their relative valuation by consumers, have been studied to assist in understanding consumer demand for beef. Given the relevance of such attributes in consumer’s mind, researchers have sought to study how to profitably provide those beef attributes demanded by consumers. Addressing consumer demands for tenderness, an important attribute (Schroeder and Mark, 2000), aging beef has been proved to be a technology that improves flavor, tenderness and juiciness (Kim, Kemp & Samuelson, 2016). By using aging processes, the same cattle carcass can generate more highly valued beef products. I study the willingness to pay for aging and USDA grade in beef, to understand valuation of attributes by consumers with various demographics. </p> <p><br></p> <p>In beef markets, the heterogeneity of beef cuts in their usage, pricing and distribution channels is crucial. Supply and demand shocks can affect individual cuts in different ways (Ortez et al, 2022). With some beef cuts relying heavily on restaurant sales more than others, this offers a good opportunity to introduce a new concept in beef market analysis, namely the price relationship amongst beef cuts and its response to different market shocks. The traditional discussion around spreads in meat focus on differences in price at separate steps in the supply chain, namely farm, wholesale and retail. However, little attention has been given to the relative differences in prices of specific cuts of beef.</p> <p><br></p> <p>The potential influence of online media chatter in its sentiment and volume has largely been under appreciated in the Agricultural Economics literature. A predecessor in this area is Tonsor and Olynk (2011) who first established a connection between news activity and economic fundamentals in agriculture. The advent of the internet may have the ability to decrease information asymmetry and bridge the information gap between consumers, producers and market products. Online media listening allows for data collection efficiently and in real time (Widmar, 2019) and it may be a relevant aspect in the decision making of agricultural and food industries. Moved by this endeavor, I seek to understand if potential relationships between online media chatter sentiment and volume with futures prices in dairy products exist.</p> <p>  </p>

Secondary Mortgage Markets and Place-Based Inequality: Space, GSEs and Social Exclusion in the Philadelphia Region Michael H. Norton Temple University, 2015 Doctoral Advisory Committee Chair: Dr. Anne Shlay In 2015 virtually the entire US mortgage market is subsidized by US taxpayers. When the Federal Government took control of the Government Sponsored Enterprises (GSEs) Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in the summer of 2008, US tax payers assumed responsibility for the vast majority of outstanding mortgage debt in the country. This dissertation examined the historical development and contemporary activity of the secondary mortgage market to understand the way the secondary market contributes to the reproduction of place-based inequality in American cities. Specifically, this dissertation analyzed the political-economic history of the secondary mortgage market to ground a contemporary analysis of the impact of secondary mortgage market activity on neighborhood change in the Philadelphia region at the turn of the 21st century. At the turn of the 21st century secondary market institutions coordinated a financial production process referred to in this study as the financialization of space. This process transforms the individual spatial relationships between individuals and their homes into financial commodities that are bought and sold by financial institutions. Individual mortgage loans make the financialization of space possible by providing the raw material that transmits capital embedded in the social spaces of individual homes and communities through secondary market institutions and into the abstract spaces of international capital markets. However, the financialization of space itself is made possible by a number of key contradictions that created considerable tension between the ongoing expansion of finacialized space and mortgage lending to individual home owners. These tensions were built into the very framework of the legislative policies governing the secondary mortgage market. The evolution of the secondary mortgage market was informed by parallel streams of housing policy that alternately sought to expand and regulate the primary and secondary mortgage markets at the end of the 20th century. The confluence of these policy streams initially created the conditions for the GSEs to pioneer financial productions processes that led to the financializaiton of space. At the same time, the emergence of subprime lending in the primary market, combined with the expansion of the secondary mortgage market to unregulated, private institutions, created dual housing markets differentiated by the types of loans available in the primary market and the funding sources for these loans in the secondary market. Throughout the study period (1996 – 2007), the GSEs concentrated the vast majority of all their purchasing activity buying conventional loans in the more affluent areas of the region. On the other hand, private institutions steadily eroded GSE market share in the conventional market, represented virtually the entire secondary market for subprime loans, and were considerably more active purchasing loans made to borrowers in communities that had been historically excluded from the primary mortgage market. Secondary market activity from 1996 to 2007 was significantly associated with changes along key housing and socio-economic conditions from 1990 to 2010. GSE market share was significantly associated with changing homeownership levels in neighborhoods throughout the region from 1990 to 2010. Higher levels of GSE market share were associated with net increases in homeownership in neighborhoods throughout the region. In a similar way, GSE-informed changes in homeownership levels were subsequently associated with significant changes in the percentage of residents living in poverty in neighborhoods throughout the region from 1990 to 2010, particularly on the Pennsylvania side of the region. Unlike the relationship between secondary market purchasing and homeownership, the relationship between secondary market purchasing and poverty levels functions through housing - either by virtue of more affluent residents moving in, or poor residents moving out of these areas. In both instances, GSE market share, and GSE-informed changes in homeownership sharpened differences between the different communities depending on where the GSEs concentrated their purchasing activity. The region’s urban centers, where GSE market share was lowest, experienced the greatest reductions in home ownership throughout the region, and the greatest increases in neighborhood poverty levels. In addition, the spatial relationships between individual neighborhoods exerted significant influences on changes in each of the housing and socio-economic indicators assessed. These findings suggest that space itself, and the spatial relationships between neighborhoods, exerted a significant influence on both secondary market activity and changing neighborhood conditions throughout the Philadelphia region. Over the twenty year period observed in this study, the types of differences between neighborhoods in the region have remained largely the same, while the degree of these differences has intensified during this time. In this way, the spatial distribution of neighborhood types in the Philadelphia region informed secondary market at the turn of the 21st century, which in turn contributed to the intensification of the differences between neighborhood types throughout the region. The findings presented in this study point to a number of key implications for theorists seeking to explain the role of space and place in the (re)production of patterns of uneven-development in metropolitan regions, and for understanding the financializaiton of space. In addition, these findings also point to key insights for policy makers currently developing legislation to reform the secondary mortgage market. / Sociology

Bostadspolitiken i Sverige behöver förändras för att skapa jämlika förutsättningar för kommuner att kunna utveckla den lokala bostadsmarknaden och tillgodose sitt lagstadgade bostadsförsörjningsansvar. Landsbygder har andra förutsättningar än de urbaniserade städerna och flera av Sveriges landsbygdskommuner uppvisar en befolkningsminskning, låga bostadspriser och liten eller obefintlig nyproduktion. Denna studien har riktat sitt fokus till två landsbygdskommuner i norra Sverige och deras arbete med sin bostadsförsörjning. Syftet med studien är att undersöka vilka förutsättningar det finns i kommunerna Sorsele och Älvsbyn att tillgodo se sitt bostadsförsörjningsansvar. Syftet är också att visa potentiella åtgärder i den nationella politiken som underlättar för landsbygdskommuner att tillgodose sitt bostadsförsörjningsansvar.  Resultaten av studien visar på att det finns många problem som står vägen för att kommunerna Älvsbyn och Sorsele ska kunna förbättra sina bostadsmarknader. Några av problemen som framkommer är låga fastighetspriser, finansieringssvårigheter och ett sviktande skatteunderlag. Konkurrenssituationen som existerar mellan kommunerna om invånare och arbetstillfällen medför att kommuner har en tendens att planera för en ökande befolkning snarare än en minskande. Detta i sin tur skapar problem då planeringen av service och bostadsbestånd inte är anpassade utifrån rådande förutsättningar, utan snarare är anpassade för en större befolkning. På grund av sina små ekonomiska muskler har Sorsele och Älvsbyn svårt att själva vända den pågående utvecklingen. Utifrån rådande situation tvingas de lägga sina förhoppningar på extern finansiering, företagsetableringar och inflyttningar.   För att visa på alternativ till pågående utveckling för bostadsförsörjning i landsbygdskommuner har en framtidsstudie gjorts. I framtidsstudien identifieras tre scenarier med potential att nå en positiv framtidsvision och den utgår ifrån hur bostadspolitiken behöver förändras för att landsbygdskommuner med svaga bostadsmarknader ska kunna leva upp till sitt bostadsförsörjningsansvar. Framtidsstudien visar på att reformer inom bostadspolitiken, landsbygdspolitiken och skattepolitiken kan användas för att uppnå visionen. Trots att det råder osäkerhet om genomförbarheten och resultatet av olika reformer som föreslås i framtidsstudien, är en slutsats att framtidens bostadspolitik har mycket goda förutsättningar att lyckas skapa en förbättrad bostadsmarknad i landsbygdskommuner. / Housing policy in Sweden needs to change in order to create equal conditions for municipalities to develop the local housing market and meet their statutory housing supply responsibilities. Rural areas, particularly in northern Sweden, have long been disadvantaged by housing policies pursued by the government. Rural areas are in a difficult situation and several areas are experiencing population decline, low house prices and little or no new construction. As housing research tends to focus on housing policy from the perspective of an urban norm, this study has instead focused on housing policy in rural areas. The aim of this study is to investigate what conditions exist in the municipalities of Sorsele and Älvsbyn and how they are working to achieve their housing supply responsibilities. Furthermore, the aim is to examine potential national policy measures to help rural municipalities meet their housing responsibilities. The results of the study show that there are many problems that stand in the way of the municipalities of Älvsbyn and Sorsele improving their housing markets. Some of the problems identified are low property prices, financing difficulties and a shrinking tax base. Because of their small financial muscle, Sorsele and Älvsbyn have difficulty in reversing the current trend themselves. Given the current situation, they are forced to place their hopes in external financing, the establishment of companies and the arrival of new residents.  In contrast to current housing trends, a futures study has been undertaken to show alternatives to the current development of housing supply in rural municipalities. The study identifies three scenarios with the potential to achieve a positive vision of the future, based on how housing policy needs to change to enable rural municipalities with weak housing markets to meet their housing supply responsibilities. The futures study shows that reforms in housing policy, as well as fiscal policy can be used to achieve the vision.  Despite uncertainty about the feasibility and outcome of various reforms proposed in the future study, this study concludes that future housing policy has a very good chance of succeeding in creating an improved housing market in rural municipalities.

Conducting an IPO allows companies to obtain external capital from investors in exchange for ownership stakes. The capital raised in an IPO is intended to finance the company's economic growth and expansion. A challenge regarding IPOs is the pricing of shares. The study aims to investigate whether there is a relationship between industry affiliation and underpricing in IPOs on Nasdaq Stockholm and First North. The study will also examine whether underpricing differs between IPOs on First North and Nasdaq Stockholm and whether there is a relationship between market conditions and underpricing. The sample of the study consists of 197 companies operating in the Data/IT, Real Estate, Finance, Manufacturing Industry, and Pharmaceutical industries between 2017-2023. The study uses a chi 2 test and t-tests in order to answer the research questions.  The results of the study shows that there is a statistically significant relationship between underpricing and the Swedish stock market. The average underpricing was 8,99% for all IPOs in the sample. Furthermore, the study's results indicate that there is no significant relationship between industry affiliation and underpricing. Future research could examine how IPOs in the selected industries perform over time.