Problem When choosing topic for this study the economy was on the brink of a recession. Many experts made varying statements regarding this fact, and further readings in this area led us to question: can an in- clusion of gold enhance the performance in an index portfolio dur- ing recessions? And if so, how much should be allocated to gold? Purpose The purpose of this thesis is to look back at the historical price de- velopment of gold and DJIA during recessions in order to find out whether an inclusion of gold can improve a DJIA index portfolio held in today’s recession. In addition, by analyzing the risks and pos- sibilities with gold, the optimal allocation of gold in a DJIA portfolio will be investigated in.   Method The methodological approach will be of a quantitative data analysis approach. By using historical data, new empirical findings will be found by using the deductive approach. This method has been cho- sen due to the nature of the purpose and in order to best give a gen- eral answer to our research questions. Conclusion The gold price is strongly influenced by uncertainty, and even though an optimal allocation of gold in each recession could be found, no general optimal allocation applicable in today’s recession could be found. Gold has higher risk (higher variance) than DJIA, but is compensated with higher return as well.

<p><strong>Problem</strong></p><p>When choosing topic for this study the economy was on the brink of a recession. Many experts made varying statements regarding this fact, and further readings in this area led us to question: can an in- clusion of gold enhance the performance in an index portfolio dur- ing recessions? And if so, how much should be allocated to gold?</p><p><strong>Purpose</strong></p><p>The purpose of this thesis is to look back at the historical price de- velopment of gold and DJIA during recessions in order to find out whether an inclusion of gold can improve a DJIA index portfolio held in today’s recession. In addition, by analyzing the risks and pos- sibilities with gold, the optimal allocation of gold in a DJIA portfolio will be investigated in.</p><p> </p><p><strong>Method</strong></p><p>The methodological approach will be of a quantitative data analysis approach. By using historical data, new empirical findings will be found by using the deductive approach. This method has been cho- sen due to the nature of the purpose and in order to best give a gen- eral answer to our research questions.</p><p><strong>Conclusion</strong></p><p>The gold price is strongly influenced by uncertainty, and even though an optimal allocation of gold in each recession could be found, no general optimal allocation applicable in today’s recession could be found. Gold has higher risk (higher variance) than DJIA, but is compensated with higher return as well.</p>

Submitted by Maicon Juliano Schmidt (maicons) on 2015-05-25T14:00:15Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Jorge Augusto Dias Samsonescu.pdf: 443638 bytes, checksum: 0ac887f981377608fa611c1016a91b22 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-05-25T14:00:15Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Jorge Augusto Dias Samsonescu.pdf: 443638 bytes, checksum: 0ac887f981377608fa611c1016a91b22 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-02-20 / Banco do Brasil S.A. / Este trabalho analisa o desempenho fora da amostra de carteiras de mínima variância e baixa volatilidade no mercado de ações brasileiro entre 2003 e 2013, comparativamente ao índice IBOVESPA e a uma carteira igualmente ponderada. As carteiras de mínima variância foram otimizadas com restrição de posições vendidas e limite de peso para os ativos. A matriz de covariância foi estimada pelo método amostral e método shrinkage proposto por Ledoit e Wolf (2003). A carteira de baixa volatilidade foi estruturada de forma similar ao método do índice S&P 500 Low Volatility. O período utilizado para o rebalanceamento das carteiras foi quadrimestral e os ativos elegíveis para as carteiras foram os componentes do IBOVESPA em cada quadrimestre analisado. A comparação das carteiras foi feita através dos indicadores de retorno, desvio padrão e índice de Sharpe anualizados, MVaR e maximum drawdown. Os resultados apontam para a importância na escolha do limite de pesos para os ativos das carteiras de mínima variância. As carteiras de menor risco obtiveram os melhores resultados em todos os indicadores testados. / This study analyzes the out-of-sample performance of minimum-variance and low volatility portfolios in the Brazilian stock market from 2003 to 2013, when compared to IBOVESPA index and an equally weighted portfolio. The minimum variance portfolios have been optimized with short selling restriction and weight limits for the assets. The covariance matrix was estimated by sample method and shrinkage method proposed by Ledoit & Wolf (2003). The low volatility portfolio was structured in a similar way to the S&P 500 Low Volatility index method. The portfolios rebalancing period were quarterly and the eligible assets for the portfolios were IBOVESPA components in each analyzed period. The portfolios performance was evaluated through indicators such return, standard deviation, Sharpe ratio, maximum drawdown and MVAR indicators. The results point to the importance in choosing the weight limits for the assets of minimum-variance portfolios. Lower risk portfolios delivered the best results in all tested indicators.

nÃo hà / Quando a conjuntura econÃmica de um paÃs propicia baixa taxa de juros de mercado, a rentabilidade de aplicaÃÃes ditas seguras, como em renda fixa, deixa de ser negÃcio atrativo para investidores, que optam por submeter-se a um risco maior em busca de maiores rendimentos. Em tais cenÃrios, investidores arriscam-se no mercado acionÃrio, no qual ganhos maiores podem ser auferidos, apesar do risco superior ao da renda fixa. A Teoria Moderna do PortfÃlio mostra que esse risco pode ser reduzido pela diversificaÃÃo de ativos. Esta pesquisa tem por objetivo verificar se um modelo quantitativo baseado na Teoria Moderna do PortfÃlio à capaz ajudar na diversificaÃÃo de um portfÃlio, reduzindo risco a nÃveis inferiores aos da carteira de mercado, enquanto proporciona rendimentos superiores aos de s de mercado. Os testes utilizaram sÃries histÃricas de 36 ativos negociados na BOVESPA entre 1999 e 2012, e foram conduzidos em janelas de amostras de 12, 36, 60 e 120 observaÃÃes. Os resultados mostram que a ampliaÃÃo do horizonte de investimento permite a obtenÃÃo de desempenho superior do portfÃlio selecionado pela otimizaÃÃo baseada na mÃnima variÃncia, comparativamente à aplicaÃÃo livre de risco (CDI) e ao Ãndice Bovespa.

資產配置問題與方法一直是投資人所關心之重要課題。藉由不同之建構投資組合的方法尋找資產的最適權重分配，可使得投資人對所持有資產的管理變得更容易且具效率。在這些方法當中，最小變異數投資組合可滿足追求風險極小化之需求。本文亦從此出發，探討一種特殊的最小變異數投資組合：加權範數最小變異數投資組合，並以台灣50作為實證資料，運用十個績效指標來衡量加權範數最小變異數投資組合、其他三種標竿投資組合與指數型基金台灣50之表現。 結果發現本研究所選取之台灣市場資料在運用加權範數最小變異數投資組合下，確實可以打敗其他大部分投資組合以及台灣50基金，並且在以下兩論點與過往文獻之敘述一致：加入報酬限制條件無法改善績效、使用替代參數亦可提供相稱績效。 / The asset allocation problem has always been an important issue on which investors concern. It is easier and more efficient for investors to manage their assets through constructing their portfolios in different methods to find the most optimized weight of assets. This essay explores a special portfolio, Weighted-Norm Minimum Variance Portfolio (WNMVP), which can minimize the risks of investment, and use Taiwan stock market data to undertake empirical study. The research measured the performance of WNMVP, other three benchmark portfolios, and Taiwan Top 50 ETF (0050) by using ten indicators, bringing three findings. First, WNMVP performs better than most of other portfolios do. Second, adding estimated mean return vector into the WNMVP does not improve performances. Third, three alternative norm penalties provide comparable performance as parameters in WNMVP do. The second and third findings are consistence with previous literature.

Most indexes use a cap-weighted strategy as the asset allocation method. Many researchers suggest that although the cap-weighted strategy often serves as an appropriate surrogate to the market portfolio, it cannot consistently outperform other portfolio weighting strategies. The main reasons behind it would be related to the market movement and the underlying volatility. It is possible to narrow down the scope of the research by focusing on an industry index as was done in this research. The focus would be on the mining index of Indonesia. Comparisons will be done between the established index to other portfolio weighting schemes, namely the equally weighted portfolio and the minimum variance portfolio. The results of the research was that the index was not quite efficient, both on the returns and the Sharpe or information ratio aspect. There are many possible reasons behind this, but the most possible reasons would be that the stocks included do not contribute to diversification, over focus on the coal industry, lack of rebalancing or restructuring, in addition to the market itself. The implication of this research would be that stock exclusion might also contribute to risk minimization.

The aim of this study was to assess the feasibility of constructing optimal portfolios using the Johannesburg Securities Exchange tradable sector indices. Three indices were employed, namely Financials, Industrials and Resources and were benchmarked against the JSE All Share Index for the period January 2007 to December 2017. The period was split into three, namely before the 2007-2009 global financial crises, during the global financial crises and after the global financial crises. The Markowitz’s mean-variance optimisation framework was employed for the construction of global mean variance portfolios. The results of this study showed that it was feasible to construct mean-variance efficient portfolios using tradable sector indices from the Johannesburg Securities Exchange. It was also established that, on the other hand, global mean variance portfolios constructed in this study, outperformed the benchmark index in a bullish market in terms of the risk-return combinations. On the other hand, in bear markets, the global mean variance portfolios were observed to perform better than the benchmark index in terms of risk. Further, the results of the study showed that portfolios constructed from the three tradable indices yielded diversification benefits despite their positive correlation with each other. The results of the study corroborate the findings by other scholars that the mean-variance optimisation framework is effective in the construction of optimal portfolios using the Johannesburg Securities Exchange. The study also demonstrated that Markowitz’s mean-variance framework could be applied by investors faced with a plethora of investment choices to construct efficient portfolios utilising the Johannesburg Securities Exchange tradable sector indices to achieve returns commensurate with their risk preferences. / Business Management / M. Com. (Business Management)

The interest in sustainable investing has increased significantly during recent years. Asset managers and institutional investors are urged to invest more sustainable from their stakeholders, reducing their investment universe. This thesis has found that sustainable investments have a different linear dependence structure compared to the regional markets in Europe and North America, but not in Asia-Pacific. However, the largest drawdowns of an sustainable compliant portfolio has historically been lower compared to the a random market portfolio, especially in Europe and North America. / Intresset för hållbara investeringar har ökat avsevärt de senaste åren. Fondförvaltare och institutionella investerare är, från deras intressenter, manade att investera mer hållbart vilket minskar förvaltarnas investeringsuniversum. Denna uppsats har funnit att hållbara investeringar har en beroendestruktur som är skild från de regionala marknaderna i Europa och Nordamerika, men inte för Asien-Stillahavsregionen. De största värdeminskningarna i en hållbar portfölj har historiskt varit mindre än värdeminskningarna från en slumpmässig marknadsportfölj, framförallt i Europa och Nordamerika.