This work is about trading futures markets. It defines rules of two different intraday strategies with the same basic trading idea on e-mini NASDAQ 100 market. First strategy is more mechanical, second is more discrete. These strategies are tested via backtest and papertrading. The results of tests are evaluated and based on that is chosen one strategy, which is then applied on live trading. Results from live trading are compared with the results of previous tests for a purpose finding a difference between them and identifying the causes of these differences.

Denna studie ämnar bidra till den rådande jämställdhetsdebatten vad gäller könsdiversitet hos svenska noterade företag där kvinnliga vd:s är underrepresenterade. Syftet är att identifiera om det finns ett samband mellan kvinnliga vd:s och företags lönsamhet. Studien tillämpar kvantitativ metod där en multipel regressionsanalys utförs på ett datamaterial inkluderande 643 svenska noterade bolag på Nasdaq Stockholm, First North och Spotlight Stock Market räkenskapsåren 2018–2019. Som proxy för lönsamhet tillämpades både redovisningsbaserade mått i form av avkastning på totala tillgångar (ROA) och avkastning på eget kapital (ROE) och som marknadsbaserat mått tillämpades Tobin’s Q. Testvariabel utgjordes i studien av kvinnlig vd med vidare applicering av kontrollvariablerna företagets storlek, ålder och skuldsättningsgrad. Undersökningens resultat påvisar inte något statistiskt signifikant samband mellan vd:s kön och företags lönsamhet, vilket är en diskrepans till de flesta tidigare studier inom området som tyder på förekomst av både negativa och positiva samband.

Share-based incentive programs have become increasingly common in Sweden. At the same time, there is criticism of whether these have a positive effect on companies or not. The programs are intended to solve the so-called principal-agent problem, which arises when the ownership and control in a company are separated. Share-based incentive programs are intended to solve this dilemma by making the employees who participate in the program’s shareholders of the company. This study has examined whether share-based incentive programs benefit the companies’ shareholders. The study investigates this by using a first-difference method, based on the publicly traded companies at Nasdaq Stockholm. The study takes support from the principal-agent theory, the managerial power theory, and other studies within the field. The result from the study shows that there is no significant difference between the companies that use the share-based incentive programs and the companies that do not. Based on this result, it is concluded that share-related incentive programs do not benefit shareholders. / Aktierelaterade incitamentsprogram blir allt vanligare i Sverige. Samtidigt finns det kritik mot huruvida dessa har en positiv effekt för företag eller inte. Programmen är tänkta att lösa det så kallad agentproblemet, som uppstår när ägandet och kontrollen i företag är separerade. Aktierelaterade incitamentsprogram är tänkta att lösa detta dilemma genom att göra de anställda som deltar i programmen till aktieägare i företaget. Denna studie har därför valt att undersöka huruvida aktierelaterade incitamentsprogram gynnar bolagets aktieägare. Studien undersöker detta genom att använda sig av en first-difference metod som baseras på bolagen på Stockholmsbörsen. Studien tar stöd från agentteorin, managerial power teorin samt tidigare forskning inom området. Resultatet från studien visar att det inte finns någon signifikant skillnad mellan bolagen som använder sig av de aktierelaterade incitamentsprogrammen och bolagen som inte använder sig av programmen. Utifrån detta resultat dras slutsatsen att aktierelaterade incitamentsprogram inte gynnar aktieägare.

This thesis investigates the relationship between sustainability performance and ownership structure, measured using the ESG (environmental, social and governance) rating and ownership structure divided into four different ownerships (family/founder, institutional, corporate and governmental). In the pursuit of analysing the relationship between the ESG rating and the ownership structure, this study investigates publicly listed companies within the Nordic countries.This thesis has the aim of examining if a publicly listed company can use sustainability ratings and ownership structure, to understand broader market dynamics and help the manager thru this maximise firm value. Results from this could help them and the public in decision making processes around sustainability initiatives and how these characteristics influence the Nordic market dynamics, by having a better understanding of how the ESG ratings are prioritised among different ownership structures. This knowledge would allow management and the public to better understand how the ESG rating affects firm’s sustainability value as well as how market dynamics of this information is related to the market as a whole and direct competition.Using secondary data collected from Refinitiv database and Nasdaq, this thesis is a deductive and quantitative research that analyses companies for the target year 2020. In addition, this research can be considered to be a historic study.The findings of this research indicate a causal relation between sustainability performance and ownership structure, leading to the conclusion that a different ownership structure might influence and lead to a different score on the scale of sustainability performance. Furthermore, the findings indicate that the governmental ownership structure has the highest positive effect on sustainability performance.Concluding with discussing how this research contributes to the current field of knowledge on the topic through analysing the results using the legitimacy, shareholder, stakeholder and agency theory. The results are aligned with the legitimacy theory on ownership structure and the stakeholder theory. Additionally, the shareholder and the agency theory help with explaining why some structures put less value on sustainability performance than others.From the results one can conclude that sustainability performance is of importance to a varying degree among the different ownership structures. This tells us that there is still a gap in understanding why different ownership structures engage in different sustainability initiatives and future research is needed to examine why different structures engage in it over others.

This dissertation consists of two essays, both co-authored with Ugur Lel. The first essay (Chapter 1) examines whether high CEO pay inequality (CPI), the share of total managerial pay captured by the CEO, is an outcome of poor corporate governance, and its implications for shareholder wealth. We exploit the 2002 NYSE and NASDAQ governance reforms that mandated firms to have majority independent boards as a quasi-exogenous source of variation in the internal governance environment of firms. Results show that CPI decreases following the passage of these exchange listing regulations, but only in firms with entrenched CEOs affected by the exchange listing regulations. Firm value also increases for these firms. These results are robust to a variety of robustness checks such as a matched sample analysis and placebo tests. Overall, our results suggest that poor governance environments are associated with high managerial pay differences and consequently lower firm valuations, supporting the view that high CEO pay inequality reflects managerial entrenchment. The second essay (Chapter 2) examines whether shareholders use executive compensation channel to align managerial horizon with their investment horizon. We utilize a newly emerged empirical measure, pay duration, to measure managerial horizon. For shareholder horizon, we use the fraction of long-term institutional ownership in the firm. Results show that there is a positive association between long-term institutional ownership and CEO pay duration, suggesting that shareholder horizon is a determining factor in compensation contracts. We address reverse causality using indexer institutions. We also establish a causal link from investor horizon to CEO pay duration using institution mergers as a source of exogenous variation in investor horizon of the firm. We extend our results to hedge fund activism and document a negative relation between hedge fund activism and pay duration, which is consistent with our argument. Overall our results suggest that shareholders structure CEO pay in a way that is consistent with their investment horizon. / Ph. D.

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.

In the last two decades, corporate governance rules in Sweden have been arguably improved, giving more protection to minority owners. We thus investigate the impact of dual-class shares on firm valuation on the Swedish stock exchange. Companies from Nasdaq Stockholm are observed during the years 2018-2022, where an OLS regression analysis is made to explore the relationship of the firm valuation measurement Tobin’s Q and other firm variables. Based on regression analysis we do not find an association between the categorical dual-class share structure and Tobin's Q. However, we find a negative association between size of the wedge - the divergence between voting and cash flow rights of the largest owner - and Tobin's Q, attributed to agency costs.

Denna studie syftar till att undersöka hur omsättningstillväxten skiljer sig före respektive efter en Initial Public Offering (börsnotering). Urvalet består av bolag som börsnoterats på Nasdaq OMX Nordic under 2009 till 2019. Antalet börsnoterade bolag under denna tidsperiod bestod av 185 och efter bortfall, till följd av studiens kriterier, hamnar urvalet på 96 bolag som studeras. Studien använder sig av en kvantitativ forskningsmetod med en deduktiv ansats där data för omsättning samlas in för respektive bolag. Vidare används ett statistiskt test, Wilcoxon Signed Rank test, för att testa studiens hypotes.  IPO är ett omdiskuterat ämne då bolag väljer att gå från privat till publikt för att finansiera verksamhetens tillväxt. Dock är det flera av bolagen som inte undersöker hur en IPO kan eller kommer att kunna påverka den finansiella prestandan, så som omsättningstillväxten. Slutsatsen som tas i denna studie är att det finns skillnader på omsättningstillväxten innan respektive efter en börsintroduktion, där en IPO konsekvenser anses vara negativa för bolagen.

L'objet de cette thèse est de contribuer à une meilleure analyse de l'impact des pratiques de marché sur la concurrence entre opérateurs boursiers. Le premier essai s'intéresse à la pratique des échanges d'informations privées. Nous considérons un marché sur lequel des courtiers ont accès à (i) des informations 'fondamentales' sur la valeur liquidative de l'actif risqué et (ii) des informations non fondamentales sur le volume des ordres passés par des investisseurs non informés. Nous montrons, dans le cadre du modèle de Kyle (1985), qu'il peut s'avérer profitable pour deux courtiers différemment informés de mettre en commun leurs informations. Le partage d'informations a un impact ambigu sur la liquidité, mais il augmente l'efficience informationnelle et la stabilité des prix. Il réduit également les coûts de transaction, ce qui suggère un impact bénéfique de cette pratique sur la performance des marchés. Le deuxième essai analyse la façon dont la pratique du "preferencing" affecte les stratégies de cotation de deux teneurs de marché averses au risque. Le preferencing permet à un teneur de marché - dit 'privilégié' - d'exécuter des ordres en exclusivité, hors du marché central. Quelle que soit la structure du marché (centralisée ou fragmentée), nous montrons que cette pratique réduit les incitations des teneurs de marchés à coter des prix concurrentiels. Elle conduit donc à une augmentation des fourchettes de prix et des profits des teneurs de marché. Toutefois, le risque de position entraîné par le preferencing peut générer des pertes pour le teneur de marché les exécutant. Dans le troisième essai, nous montrons que le teneur de marché privilégié peut donc trouver profitable de communiquer l'état de son flux d'ordres préférentiels à son concurrent lorsqu'il ne l'observe pas. La communication permet d'orienter les prix affichés dans une direction favorisant une réduction des pertes. En utilisant des données de préouverture du Nasdaq, nous trouvons que les teneurs de marché réputés les plus privilégiés (les "wholesalers") sont parmi ceux qui participent le plus au jeu de communication entre teneurs de marché. Toutefois les signaux des wholesalers sont ceux qui contribuent le moins à la découverte des prix journalière et sont concentrés sur les actions fortement liées au preferencing. En outre, à l'ouverture du Nasdaq, on constate que les prix des wholesalers et les meilleurs prix du marché ont une composante transitoire significative, ce qui corrobore l'idée d'une communication d'information sur le risque de position.

Uppsatsen undersöker hur väl resultat och bokförda värden förklarar marknadsvärde och avkastning för bolag noterade på Stockholmsbörsen under perioden 1999-2017. Vidare undersöker uppsatsen om värderelevansen av resultat och bokförda värden skiljer sig mellan hög- och lågteknologiska bolag samt om införandet av IFRS har påverkat värderelevansen. Justerad förklaringsgrad för tre regressionsmodeller används för att undersöka värderelevansens förändring över tid. Undersökningen visar att värderelevansen av resultat har minskat. Värderelevansen av bokförda värden av tillgångar och skulder, samt av resultat och bokfört värde av eget kapital kombinerat, har ökat. Alla tre modellerna visar, förutom i ett fall, på högre värderelevans för högteknologiska bolag än för lågteknologiska bolag. Vid en jämförelse av perioden innan införandet av IFRS och perioden efter har värderelevansen av resultat minskat, medan värderelevansen av bokförda värden, samt av resultat och bokfört värde av eget kapital kombinerat, ökat under samma tidsperiod. / This thesis examines the explanatory power of earnings and book values for market value and stock return for firms noted on the Nasdaq Stockholm exchange during the period 1999-2017. Further, this thesis examines if the value-relevance of earnings and book values differs between high-tech and low-tech firms, and if the implementation of IFRS has affected the value-relevance. The coefficient of determination of three regression models is used to examine the change in value-relevance over time. The examination shows that the value-relevance of earnings has declined. The value-relevance of book values of assets and liabilities, and of earnings and book value of equity, have increased. All three models show, except in one case, higher value-relevance for high-tech firms than for low-tech firms. A comparison of the periods before and after the implementation of IFRS shows that the value-relevance of earnings has declined, while the value-relevance of book values, and of earnings and book values combined, have increased.