This thesis deals with models of investment strategies in an environment of capital markets. Based on the research environment of financial markets, analysis of available financial products and the help of supporting information resources, there are developed and simulated three different investment strategies – risk dynamic strategy, medium balanced strategy and a stable conservative strategy. The output of work is an investment questionnaire, which is used to select appropriate investment strategies, and three models of investment strategies, including evaluation. Investment evaluation itself is performed by fuzzy logic.

The diploma thesis focuses on evaluation of revenue of investing in real estate through collective investment, especially through the real estate investment trusts and revenue gained by direct investment in real estate with regard to current situation in Slovak real estate market. The thesis should guide potential investor through these types of investments and its result is formulation of investment recommendation.

This thesis aims to investigate fund managers salaries in relation to their contributions. The study is conducted on the Swedish fund market under a period over five years, 2014-2018, and include 332 funds. The result observed shows a positive relation between salaries and risk-adjusted performance. The result proves that fund managers are able to outperform the market on average, which should not be possible to do systematically over time according to the efficient market hypothesis. It also turns out that salary has a positive relationship with assets under management. This indicates that fund managers are employed and compensated for more reasons than to generate a high return, namely to contribute to more significant inflows of cash to the fund company. Interpretations of fund managers’ salaries are primarily linked to agency theory and economics of superstars. The agency problem alter in the fund industry since the setting is two-folded. Agency problem could be mitigated by implementing a performance-based compensation structure, to aligning investors, management and fund managers’ ambitions. The result shows signs that a performance-based salary is present in the fund industry. A fund managers’ salary assumes to be based on his/her skillfulness, but could also be due to an individual’s stardom. To conclude, the thesis state that fund managers’ deserve their salary, which in relative terms are fairly high, since they procure additional benefits to the fund company.

Le premier chapitre montre que les rendements des fonds investis dans des actions illiquides (“fonds illiquides”) sont mieux que ceux des fonds investis dans des actions liquides. Cette différence provient des capacités de fonds illiquides de sélectionner les actions. Les actions détenues par les fonds illiquides ont une meilleure performance que des portefeuilles qui ont les mêmes caractéristiques. Les fonds liquides déclarent des indices de référence par rapport auxquels leurs rendements sont plus importants. Un portefeuille d’actions détenues par les fonds illiquides a une meilleure performance qu’un portefeuille d’actions détenues par les fonds liquides. Le second chapitre documente une prédictibilité des rendements. Dans ce chapitre, les périodes d’opportunités sont les périodes où les rendements des actions faisant l’objet d’une analyse régulière par les analystes (les actions suivies) s'écartent de ceux des actions qui ne sont pas suivie (les actions négligés). Les rendements ultérieurs des actions faciles à évaluer sont plus importants quand les opportunités étaient grandes, par rapport aux périodes où les opportunités étaient limitées. Ce comportement est cohérent avec un modelé où les investisseurs exigent une prime pour supporter le risque de sélection défavorable. Le troisième chapitre explore les moments où les fonds d’investissement changent leur style d’investissement (le style est défini comme exposition au risque, prenant en compte les facteurs de risque habituels). Les fonds ne prennent pas plus des risques quand il serait plus rentable de le faire. Après avoir eu des mauvais rendements, les fonds se rapprochent du style des fonds similaires, mais qui ont eu des bons rendements. Le style de jeunes fonds s’écarte du style de fonds anciens. Les nouveaux gérants des fonds s’écartent du style de fonds avec des anciens gérants. Quand un fond prend plus de risque d’une côté, il n’essaye pas d’aborder systématiquement les autres côtés du risque. / The first chapter shows that mutual funds that hold illiquid stocks (“illiquid funds”) outperform funds that hold liquid stocks (“liquid funds”). There is evidence this outperformance arises from stock selection skills of illiquid funds. The stocks held by illiquid funds outperform portfolios matched by characteristics. Liquid funds declare benchmarks that make their benchmarkadjusted returns appear larger. A portfolio of stocks held by illiquid funds subsequently outperforms a portfolio of stocks held by liquid funds. The second chapter documents a predictability pattern in returns. This chapter identifies high opportunities in stocks with difficult valuation as times when returns of neglected stocks diverge from returns of covered stocks. Subsequent returns of stocks with difficult valuation are higher when beginning of period opportunities are high, as compared to when beginning of period opportunities are low. This is consistent with an information risk theory, where investors demand a higher premium to hold stocks with higher probability of informed trading, because they fear adverse selection. The third chapter explores instances when mutual funds change their style (style is regarded as risk exposure alongside usual factors). Mutual funds do not take more risk when it is more profitable to do so. After performing badly, mutual funds move closer to the style of good performing peer funds. Young funds' styles diverge from the style of old peer funds. Recently hired managers diverge in style from veteran managers of peer funds. When the average fund takes more risk alongside a style dimension, it does not simultaneously consider other style dimensions.

Sustainable investing has seen a significant increase in the past years and is continuing to gain momentum with the constant rise of awareness and concern of the climate crisis. It is necessary for modern mutual fund companies to conduct ESG assessments as it provides a comprehensive understanding of a firm's sustainability performance, and identifies potential risks and opportunities which lay ground for investment decisions. However, there are still issues with fully aligning financial flows with sustainability goals. This study explores current issues regarding ESG assessment in investment decisions by mapping and examining Swedish fund companies. Furthermore, these issues will be explored if they are consistent with previous research. This study contributes to the literature by giving a comprehensive overview of issues regarding ESG assessments that are well-grounded in a real, sustainability-mature market, and will hopefully help investors and other stakeholders to get a deeper understanding of the issues, challenges and limitations associated with ESG assessment. By doing a case study of the Swedish fund market that tests factors derived from international literature, it was found that there are numerous issues in the process of conducting an ESG assessment in investment decisions. Firstly, there were issues regarding the collection of data that the fund companies use in order to conduct an ESG assessment. There is a lack of available, reliable and accessible data for fund companies to use directly and for the ESG rating agencies to use to rate companies. It is somewhat paradoxical as the fund companies feel strongly about developing their own methods for ESG assessment as they expressed hesitancy in using data from ESG rating agencies due to concerns about accuracy and comparability. By having individual methods, the fund companies gain control over the investment objectives and strategies, and hence, may avoid reputational damage. ESG rating agencies were generally discussed in the literature, as there was clear evidence of divergence between rating agencies and poor coverage of firms, which were also echoed by the fund companies. However, the companies still use ESG rating agency’s services as a support in their own ESG methods. Furthermore, regulations and legislation were an important finding in this study as fund companies perceived it to be developing in the right direction. However, the fund companies experienced being squeezed where they have demands and requirements, but no useful tools or material to achieve and satisfy them effectively. There are too many directives, actors, and initiatives for smaller fund companies to comply with, which causes frustration, misunderstandings and fuzziness among all actors on the financial market. Therefore, industry organizations such as the Swedish Investment Fund Association (SIFA) have a great responsibility to act as legal advisors and facilitate this transition. Lastly, it is ambiguous whether a standardized ESG assessment is desirable and/or even feasible in practice. While uniform regulations are required, there is also a major value in the freedom of interpretation in order to maintain the competitive advantage of having individual assessment methods. Succeeding in identifying material factors and standardizing the definition of sustainable investmentsis a challenge. Better integration between ESG and financial materiality will be required to create attractive longterm value in the future. / Hållbara investeringar har ökat avsevärt de senaste åren och fortsätter att öka i takt med att medvetenheten och oron i samhället för klimatkrisen växer. Det är nödvändigt för fondbolag att genomföra ESG-bedömningar för att få förståelse för ett bolags hållbarhetsprestanda samt identifiera potentiella risker och möjligheter vid investeringsbeslut. Det finns fortfarande utmaningar med att säkerställa att de finansiella flödena går i linje med hållbarhetsmålen. Denna studie undersöker och utforskar vilka utmaningar som finns med ESG-bedömningar vid investeringsbeslut, genom att kartlägga och granska svenska fondbolag. Dessutom kommer de identifierade utmaningarna att sättas i relation till tidigare forskning. Denna studie ämnar att bidra till litteraturen genom att ge en omfattande översikt över huvudsakliga utmaningar som finns vid genomförandet av ESG-bedömningar, som är väl förankrat i en verklig och mogen fondmarknad. Detta kommer hjälpa investerare och andra intressenter att få en djupare förståelse för utmaningarna, problemen och begränsningarna som finns förenat med ESG-bedömningar. Genom att göra en fallstudie av den svenska fondmarknaden med utgångspunkt i att testa faktorer härledda från internationell litteratur, identifierades ett flertal utmaningar med att utföra en ESG-bedömning vid investeringsbeslut. För det första fanns det svårigheter med inhämtningen av den data som börsbolag publicerar. Det råder brist på tillgänglig och pålitlig rådata som fondbolagen använder i sina egna ESG bedömningar samt för ESG ratinginstitut att använda som underlag vid betygsättning. Det blir något paradoxalt när fondbolag känner att det är väsentligt att utveckla egna metoder och modeller för ESG-bedömningar eftersom de anser att ratinginstituten erhåller tveksam data vilket ger upphov till frågor om tillförlitlighet och jämförbarhet. Vid utvecklandet av egna metoder tar de kontrollen genom att definiera sina egna hållbarhetsmål och strategier därefter, och kan därmed undvika potentiellt skadat rykte. Ratinginstitut visade även på osäkerheter såsom skiljaktigheter instituten emellan och dålig täckning på bolag (storleksmässigt), vilket nämndes både i litteratur och intervjustudien. Dock används ratinginstitutens tjänster ändå av fondbolag som en stöttepelare i deras egna metoder. I studien framgår det tydligt att utvecklingen av regelverk och lagstiftning går åt rätt håll, men samtidigt upplevs fondbolagen pressade av de nya överväldigande kraven i brist på resurser och verktyg för att lyckas hantera dem effektivt. De mindre fondbolagen upplever en frustration över den stora mängden direktiv, ramverk och aktörer som måste tas i beaktning vid ESG-bedömningar. Det lägger ett stort ansvar på branschorganisationer, däribland Fondbolagens Förening (SIFA), i rollen som juridiska rådgivare för att underlätta omställningen på fondmarknaden. Slutligen är standardisering ett omdiskuterat begrepp i studien, där det finns delade åsikter om huruvida en standardiserad ESG-bedömning är önskvärd och genomförbar i praktiken. Samtidigt som det finns ett behov av enhetliga regelverk och jämförbarhet finns det också ett värde i flexibiliteten i de egna bedömningsmetoderna för att skapa en konkurrensfördel. Att lyckas identifiera materiella faktorer och etablera en standardiserad definition av en hållbar investering är en genomgående utmaning på fondmarknaden. Bättre integration mellan ESG-faktorer och finansiell materialitet kommer att krävas för att möjliggöra ett långsiktigtvärdeskapande i framtiden.

Over the past decades, investing and saving in mutual funds has become a popular alternativefor generating returns. Interest continues to grow and is widespread among different types ofinvestors, ranging from small-scale savers to professional investors, as well as differentgeographic markets. As interest and investment has grown, so has the range of fundsavailable, and with it the range of focused funds. Among these are real estate funds, fundsconsisting of holdings in the real estate market including different types of real estatecompanies and property-related assets. The ownership of funds is associated with a fee to cover various costs associated withoperating the fund. These fees can vary greatly in size across fund types and managers andaffect the fund’s performance and returns. Fees in relation to return have been researchedwith varying results and with the rise of focused funds, the authors felt that it should befurther investigated. The purpose of this study was thus formulated to investigate whetherthere is a relationship between fund fees and returns for real estate funds. This in turn toanswer whether it is justified for fund managers to charge a higher fee and to examine if theTheory of an Efficient Market holds or not. For this, a total sample of 69 real estate fundsfrom the Swedish, Norwegian and Finnish markets during a 3 year period from 1th of January2020 to the 31th of December 2022 was examined. In summary, based on the conducted regression analyses, it can be inferred that the results,similar to previous research, vary. However, it can be observed that there is a negativerelationship between fund fees and the risk-adjusted returns of real estate funds whenanalysing funds that have been active throughout the examined period. The analyses alsoreveal that the age and size of the funds have an impact on the risk-adjusted returns, whereyounger funds with large assets generate higher returns. This means that young real estatefunds with large assets and lower fees generate higher returns compared to older funds withsmall assets and higher fees. Consequently, it is not justified for managers to charge higherfees, nor for investors to pay them. Investors seeking to maximise their returns are thereforeadvised to choose real estate funds with low fees. Finally, based on this, it can be assumedthat the Theory of Efficient Markets holds for real estate funds in the Swedish, Norwegian,and Finnish markets.

During the past few decades, social responsible investing (SRI) has rapidly grown to become a renowned investment strategy. Because of the contradictory findings on how successful this strategy is in terms of financial return, the aim of this thesis is to compare the performance of sustainable and conventional funds in four different geographical areas during the last three years. With the use of regression analysis, the correlation between the Portfolio Sustainability Score of a fund, which is a Morningstar-provided rating that represents how well a fund incorporates ESG, and its risk-adjusted return is determined. The final results of this analysis varies among the four geographical regions. The correlation between the two variables is positive in USA and Asia ex-Japan, whereas a negative relationship is found in Europe and the Nordic region. However, the obtained findings are not of statistical significance, implying that there is no difference between the risk-adjusted returns of sustainable versus conventional funds. / Under de senaste årtionden har hållbara investeringar ökat och på senare tid även blivit en väletablerad investeringsstrategi. Då tidigare studier inom området uppvisat motstridiga resultat gällande hur effektiv denna strategi är inom värdeskapande, fokuserar denna rapport på att klargöra ifall hållbara alternativt vanliga fonder är fördelaktiga utifrån ett finansiellt perspektiv. Mer specifikt undersöks fyra geografiska områden över en tidsperiod på tre år. Genom regressionsanalys bestäms korrelationen mellan en fonds Portfolio Sustainability Score, ett betyg som erhålls av Morningstar som representerar hur väl den specifika fonden inkorporerar ESG, och dess riskjusterade avkastning. De slutgiltiga resultaten av denna analys varierar i de fyra geografiska områdena. I USA och Asien där Japan exkluderas är korrelationen positiv medan en negativ korrelation råder i Europa och Norden. Dock är resultaten inte av statistisk signifikans vilket indikerar att det inte är någon skillnad i den riskjusterade avkastningen mellan hållbara och vanliga fonder.

Morningstar ratings are a popular way for investors to compare mutual funds. This thesis focuses on Swedish domestic equity funds. The relation of Morningstar ratings and fund flows was studied. Additionally, the short-term performance predictability using star ratings was investigated. This study found that top rated funds using Morningstar ratings received a higher fraction of positive fund flows compared to top rated funds ranked using past returns, Sharpe ratio, or Carhart's four-factor alpha. This provides some evidence towards Swedish investors using Morningstar ratings over other measures when selecting mutual funds. Additionally, all four measures performed poorly when used to predict one-, three- and twelve-month future fund flows, with no model being able to explain more than 7% of the variance in the data (measured in adjusted R-squared). Finally, the predictive power of Morningstar rating in respect to future outperformance (measured in Carhart's four-factor alpha) was evaluated. While all star ratings were statistically significant predictors, no model managed to explain more than 17% of the data's variance. Thus, Morningstar ratings were not found to be a good predictor of future outperformance. / Morningstar Ratings är ett populärt sätt för investerare att jämföra fonder. Denna uppsats fokuserar på svenska fonder som investerar på den svenska aktiemarknaden. Sambandet mellan Morningstar Ratings och fondflöden studerades. Även förmågan att på kort sikt förutsäga fonders prestation genom att använda deras Morningstar Rating undersöktes. Denna studie fann att topprankade fonder utifrån Morningstars prestationsmått fick en högre andel av positiva inflöden än om fonderna rankades efter tidigare avkastning, Sharpekvot eller Carharts alfa. Detta ger begränsat stöd till att svenska investerare använder Morningstar Ratings över andra prestationsmått vid val av fonder. Dessutom hade alla mått låg förklarande förmåga för framtida fondflöden över en, tre och tolv månader. Ingen modell kunde förklara mer än 7% av variansen i fondflödena (mätt i justerad R2). Till sist utvärderades förmågan att förutsäga framtida (Carharts) alfa genom Morningstar Rating. Trots att Morningstar Ratings kunde anses vara statistiskt viktiga för modellen, lyckades ingen modell förklara mer än 17% av variansen i alfa. Således kunde inte Morningstar Ratings anses vara en bra prediktor för framtida alfa.

The Covid-19 pandemic influenced the world with quarantines, travel bans, social distancing, and much more. Most remarkably, it brought the economy to a steep recession with changes in customer behavior and shocks to the financial markets. Combined with this, sustainable and green investing have grown in importance for firms that aim to incorporate sustainable practices in their businesses. This thesis evaluates the relationship between ESG and financial performance for Swedish issued mutual funds in the periods before, during, and after the covid pandemic. To capture the returns this study uses the Sharpe ratio, which penalizes volatility in the turns of funds and outputs risk-adjusted returns. The findings of this thesis highlight the importance of integrating non-financial metrics into portfolio management. The results found evidence that there is a difference in the performance between the two fund portfolios. Furthermore, this study will investigate the impact ESG variables have on the risk-adjusted rate of return. The results were that there is no compelling evidence of ESG variables impacting the returns. Moreover, significant insights from this study can be made to the Modern Portfolio Theory and Stakeholder Theory. By using Modern Portfolio Theory as the governing theory, a theoretical discussion has been made about the relationship between green investments and financial performance in times of sound economic markets and under financial crisis. This study is a quantitative study that has adopted the deduction approach. The authors of this thesis have retrieved 2 different portfolios, ESG and non-ESG, and compared the two groups against each other. 3 different periods have also been identified in the thesis: pre, during, and post Covid. The performance of the two portfolios has been examined during the three different stages to see how they have performed with hopes of finding empirical evidence that investing in ESG practices really is profitable. Statistical models such as OLS, heteroskedasticity, and more have been used in the study with the aim of helping the authors reach a conclusion.

Die vorliegende Dissertation ist in drei Themenblöcke unterteilt. Im Mittelpunkt des ersten Themenblocks steht die vergleichende Analyse der Fondsregulierung in den USA und Deutschland/der EU in Bezug auf Derivate und Verschuldung vor, während und nach der Finanzkrise 2007-2009. Ziel ist es, anhand der Darstellung der geltenden Regulierung und ihrer Anwendbarkeit auf die hypothetische Nutzung von Credit Default Swaps (CDS) durch Anleihefonds, aufzuzeigen, wie viel Flexibilität Fonds in beiden Ländern haben. Insgesamt ist der aus der Fondsregulierung erwachsende Spielraum im Hinblick auf den Einsatz von Derivaten und Verschuldung für Fonds in beiden Ländern hoch, so dass Fonds unbeobachtet ihre Zusammensetzung in Richtung risikoreicherer Kapitalanlagen lenken könnten. Der zweite Themenblock beschäftigt sich empirisch mit der Frage, in wie weit Fonds ihre Flexibilität tatsächlich ausnutzen. Als Erstes wird dabei untersucht, wie hoch das Verlustpotential der größten Fonds in den USA und Deutschland aus CDS ist. Ferner wird analysiert, ob Fondskommentare in Jahres- und Halbjahresberichten bezogen auf deren Nutzung von CDS mit den tatsächlichen CDS-Beständen konsistent sind. Basierend auf den Resultaten ist es zu empfehlen, nicht nur bestehende Regeln im Hinblick auf die spekulative Anwendung von Derivaten angemessen zu verschärfen, sondern auch die Publizitätspflichten in beiden Ländern weiter zu standardisieren. Unter Heranziehung umfangreicher Fondscharakteristika, insbesondere Managercharakteristika, untersucht der dritte Themenblock, was die Entscheidung der US Anleihefonds CDS zu benutzen, deren Nutzung zu erweitern sowie die Nutzungsweise beeinflusst. Ferner werden die exakten Typen von CDS, die von Anleihefonds gehalten werden, wie z. B. long oder short CDS, die sich auf Einzelnamen oder Gruppen von Titeln beziehen, aufgezeigt. / The thesis consists of three parts. The first part analyzes the regulation at the time surrounding the 2007-2009 financial crisis and after with respect to leverage and derivative holdings for mutual funds in the U.S. and Germany/the EU. After presenting a detailed overview of U.S. and German/European regulations, this study thoroughly compares the levels of flexibility funds have in both countries. All analyses reveal that under existing derivative and leverage regulation, funds in both countries are able to increase risk by using derivatives up to the point at which it is possible for them to default solely due to investments in derivatives. This makes the issue of regulation highly relevant for the public and regulators. The second part builds upon the first and empirically investigates the level of credit derivatives use by funds together with their communication toward investors. Firstly, the loss potential arising from investments into CDS for a sample of large U.S. and German mutual funds is analyzed. Secondly, it is investigated whether comments on CDS use contained in periodic fund reports are consistent with the disclosed CDS holdings. Based on the results, it seems advisable that regulators in both countries tighten rules restricting the speculative use of derivatives by funds to a reasonable level, as well as implement more standardized disclosure policies. The third part analyzes what determines whether U.S. corporate bond funds decide to use CDS in a particular period between mid-2004 to 2010, to which extent they use them and how, by relying on various fund characteristics including an extended set of manager variables. In addition, the types of various credit derivatives that funds use (e.g. long and short CDS on single-name or multi-name underlying positions) are presented. The results suggest that the characteristics of fund managers affect a fund’s risk taking via derivatives, in addition to fund fundamentals.