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There has been a renewed interest by international institutional investors in the US hotel property market and increased interest in Real Estate Investment Trusts. One challenge these investors face is if it is feasible to simultaneously invest in a specific property type, both privately and publicly. In order to determine if their portfolios would benefit from the inclusion of private and public hotel real estate investors will have to carefully take into consideration: expectations for returns, tolerance for risk, allocation of assets, and the correlations between the assets. This study analyzed the performance of simulated mixed-asset portfolios using average annual returns from 1994 to 2012. The portfolios were constructed by using modern portfolio theory. The purpose was to analyze whether the inclusion of privately owned US hotel real estate and publicly traded US hotel real estate in a mixed-asset portfolio enhances the portfolio frontier. The results showed: the separate inclusion of private hotel real estate enhanced the frontier, the separate inclusion of public hotel real estate did not enhance the frontier, and the simultaneous inclusion of both private and public hotel real estate enhanced the frontier.

Studies carried out during the 2000’s have shown that securitized real estate has outperformed the direct real estate market with as much as up to 500 basis points on an annual basis during the 80’s and 90’s. Allocation to real estate among institutional investors has at the same time been at around 5%. Research conducted in the area during this period has suggested an allocation to real estate around 10% - 20% in a mixed-asset portfolio, depending on the specifics of the real estate. Securitized and direct real estate come with different benefits and different problems, such as a better inflation hedge and asset-liability frameworks but worse information transparency for direct real estate, but a higher liquidity, return (including volatility) and information transparency for securitized real estate market. This research shows that during the period 2000-2010 securitized real estate still outperforms direct real estate. The spread during the period is as much as 762 basis points per annum. The highest risk-adjusted return is given to the investor who invests between 21% - 30% depending on the specifics of the real estate. However, noticeable is that risk factors such as illiquidity, lower transparency and geographical could eventually give another perspective on the outcome of the risk-adjusted return.

Investment companies are actors that play important private- and socioeconomic roles in the business world. The purpose of this thesis is to examine investment strategies of Swedish investment companies, in terms of risk and the extent to which academic theory is employed in the process. To accomplish this, Swedish publicly listed investment companies have been sorted by size and portfolio structure. Empirical research consisting of data collection and interviews indicates that companies rarely apply theories in their entirety. Instead they are opting to 'cherry-pick' individual concepts. As active owners, companies tend to view each holding as an individual investment. By contributing to corporate governance with knowledge and experience, investment companies are able to facilitate long-term strategic growth. While both the financial industry and society as a whole have evolved, Swedish investment companies still typically rely on dated, ‘proven’ methods. / Investmentbolag är aktörer i näringslivet som fyller funktion ur såväl samhälls- som privatekonomisk synvinkel. Uppsatsens syfte är att kartlägga svenska investmentbolags investeringsstrategi med avseende på risk och huruvida man tillämpar akademisk teori inom området. För att möjliggöra detta har svenska börsnoterade investmentbolag sorterats efter storlek och portföljstruktur. Empirisk undersökning i form av inhämtad fakta och utförda intervjuer har visat att man inte använder akademisk teori med avseende på risk, dock visas att element av dessa tillämpas. Strategin som aktiv ägare handlar istället om att betrakta varje innehav som en enskild investering och med kunskap och erfarenhet i innehavens respektive ledning bidra till en långsiktig strategisk utveckling. Trots att finansbranschen och samhället utvecklats så håller man sig i svenska investmentbolag fortfarande till beprövade arbetsmetoder.

This was a study on the Utah cattle industry which compared five different feeding enterprises. These feeding enterprises included feeding cull cows, finishing beef yearling steers, finishing Holstein yearling steers, backgrounding beef steer calves, and backgrounding Holstein steer calves. The main purpose of this study was to determine which feeding enterprise was the most profitable for Utah cattle producers. Another objective of the study was to determine if LRP insurance lowered the volatility in the returns to these feeding enterprises. In order to answer these two questions of interest, a historical analysis of Utah cattle and feed prices was conducted from 1990 through 2009. Weekly sales data were used, and seasonality and price trends were determined. Next, enterprise budgets were created for each feeding enterprise to establish historical returns. Then, using the historical data as a foundation, a simulation analysis was run to forecast future returns and determine the risk associated with each feeding enterprise. LRP insurance was also added to the model to simulate the effects it had on lowering risk. After completing a simulation analysis and comparing means and standard deviations of the expected returns, portfolio theory was used to put the feeding enterprises into different portfolios to attempt to lower risk. Then stochastic dominance was used to conclude which feeding enterprise was the most preferred for Utah cattle producers. The results of the study depend upon the producer's level of risk. The majority of producers have an ARAC value between -0.0002 and 0.0012. With that knowledge, the results suggested that the majority of Utah cattle producers should finish Holstein yearling steers. If a producer was highly risk seeking, then he or she was better off to feed cull cows. If the producer was highly risk averse, then he or she preferred a portfolio of cull cows and backgrounding both Holstein and beef steers with LRP insurance. The results of the study also indicated that LRP insurance was an effective tool for lowering the variability in expected returns. However, the results suggested that the most preferred option for Utah cattle producers was to feed either cull cows or Holstein yearling steers without LRP insurance.

This research investigates brand equity’s role in mitigating the impact of the COVID-19, a complex crisis, on firms’ stock performance. It also compares a high brand equity stock (HBES) portfolio with the overall market during three periods of the crisis (downturn, upturn, and total disturbance). To delineate brand equity’s influences across different periods of the COVID-19 crisis, I distinguish between three market periods: (1) market downturn; (2) market upturn; (3) total disturbance. Furthermore, the excess returns of the HBES portfolio with the overall market, containing all the firms listed collectively on the Center for Research in Security Prices (CRSP), NYSE, AMEX, and NASDAQ, are compared. The Fama-French (FF; Fama and French, 1993) method is used to examine the brand equity’s effects on stock return and risk factors, namely volatility and beta. Using the Behavioral Portfolio Theory (BPT), this research shows brand equity insulates firm performance during the COVID-19 crisis by improving stock return and mitigating risks. However, brand equity effects vary across the three market periods, improving stock return and reducing volatility in the downturn. Nevertheless, brand equity does not buffer stock return in the upturn. Overall, during the total disturbance period, brand equity protects stock return and diminishes risk. The comparative findings indicate brand equity is a strong protector of stock return in the downturn, while it is more effective in reducing risk in the upturn. The findings advance research by providing evidence pertaining to brand’s role in mitigating the impact of unpredictable market shocks and crises, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, on stock performance. While brands are mostly viewed as drivers of sustained competitive advantage and profitability, their protective role in times of crisis is noteworthy. The findings can potentially help marketing and brand managers justify marketing spending and aid them in crafting strategies to enhance firm performance during crises similar to the COVID-19. The marketing-finance interface can benefit from insights offered by the COVID-19 pandemic, as such crises are becoming prevalent and are capable of damaging various stakeholder’s outcomes (firms, investors, customers).

The financial crisis in 2008 was a source for asset managers to find new, different assets to optimize their portfolios. During the last couple of years the pension funds have slowly started to further invest in alternative assets, such as real estate assets. Still, these investments in alternative assets only represent a small part of the total capital of the pension funds. This study examines the investment strategies that the Swedish National pension funds are using. The purpose is to find out why they don’t invest more in real estate. The Swedish National pension funds are regulated through Swedish law with investment rules that regulate the allocation of capital. However there is no specific investment rule regarding real estate investments. The other investment rules limits the Swedish National pension funds to invest more in real estate. Nevertheless the result of this study shows how the Swedish National pension funds are positive to increase investments in real estate. The conclusion of this study pinpoints that the Swedish National pension funds investment rules should be investigated and changed. Done correctly, this change could lead to more investment in real estate in the future by the Swedish National pension funds. / Finanskrisen 2008 gav upphov till fondförvaltare att hitta nya tillgångar att investera i för att optimera sina portföljer. Pensionsfonder har i och med detta långsamt börjat öka sina investeringar i alternativa tillgångar som till exempel fastigheter under de senaste åren. Fortfarande utgör dessa investeringar i fastigheter en liten procentandel av pensionsfondernas totala kapital. Denna studie undersöker investeringsstrategierna som de svenska allmänna pensionsfonderna använder sig av och syftet med studien är att ta reda på de bakomliggande faktorerna till varför de inte investerar mer i fastigheter. Eftersom AP-fonderna är statligt ägda har de placeringsregler som reglerar hur AP-fonderna ska allokera sitt kapital. Dock finns det ingen specifik regel gällande fastighetsinvesteringar men de andra reglerna medför att AP-fonderna inte kan investera så mycket i fastigheter. Resultatet från denna studie visar ändå tydligt att AP-fonderna ser positivt på ökad allokering i fastigheter. Slutsatsen med studien är att placeringsreglerna borde kollas över och att vissa av reglerna borde ändras då det skulle kunna leda att AP-fonderna i framtiden skulle kunna investera mer i fastigheter.

This paper investigates the diversification characteristics of commodities in relation to the Swedish equity index OMXSPI. Much of the previous literature concludes that gold and oil possess diversification or hedging properties against the US equity markets. The findings from literature investigating other markets or commodities are less conclusive. We apply a DCC-GARCH model on monthly data between 1996 and 2022 and analyze the dynamic conditional correlations between eight commodities, Swedish inflation and OMXSPI. We focus our analysis on three well-known crises and find large variations in the correlation among the assets and between the different crises. We also construct three portfolios, a minimum variance-, maximum Sharpe- and equally weighted portfolio, to investigate if commodities lower the variance of a portfolio based on OMXSPI. We find that aluminum, cocoa, silver and soybeans display diversification characteristics while copper, platinum and rubber are deemed less capable diversifiers. The model returned no significant results between the commodities and inflation. We conclude this could be because of the stable nature of Sweden’s inflation or the low contribution commodities seem to have to the GDP.

The financial portfolio model often referred to as the Black-Litterman model is analyzed using two approaches; a mathematical and a behavioral finance approach. After a detailed description of its framework, the Black-Litterman model is derived mathematically using a sampling theoretical approach. This approach generates a new interpretation of the model and gives an interpretable formula for the mystical parameter τ, the weight-on-views. Secondly, implications are drawn from research results within behavioral finance. One of the most interesting features of the Black-Litterman model is that the benchmark portfolio, against which the performance of the portfolio manager is evaluated, functions as the point of reference. According to behavioral finance, the actual utility function of the investor is reference-based and investors estimate losses and gains in relation to this benchmark. Implications drawn from research results within behavioral finance indicate and explain why the portfolio output given by the Black-Litterman model appears more intuitive to fund managers than portfolios generated by the Markowitz model. Another feature of the Black-Litterman model is that the user assigns levels of confidence to each asset view in the form of confidence intervals. Research results within behavioral finance have, however, shown that people tend to be badly calibrated when estimating their levels of confidence. Research has shown that people are overconfident in financial decision-making, particularly when stating confidence intervals. This is problematic. For a deeper understanding of the use of the Black-Litterman model it seems that we should turn to those financial fields in which social and organizational context and issues are taken into consideration, to generate better knowledge of the use of the Black-Litterman model. / QC 20101119

A growing number of studies have been conducted in the sphere of portfolio analysis concerning different approaches for analyzing stocks and outperforming the market. Pioneers in the sphere of portfolio theory like William Sharpe and Harry Markowitz have developed strategies and ratios for portfolio analysis that could generate positive risk-adjusted returns. Thus, this paper will solicit a number of these strategies to endeavor and generate a return that is higher than the market index while considering the expenses that come with buying and selling stocks (transaction costs). Therefore, the purpose of this study is to assess how active investing measures up to passive investing in the sphere of the Swedish stock market. The roadmap to achieve the desired goals set by the authors is to create numerous portfolios on a weekly basis with securities present in the Swedish OMX30 index using the Maximum Sharpe, Maximum M2, Minimum Variance, and Equally Weighted optimizations. Then the significance of the transaction costs will be tested and a comparison with the market index will be made. The results suggest that in the realm of the Swedish stock market, investing in dynamically optimized portfolios based on the maximization of Sharpe Ratio and M2 will generate higher returns in comparison to passively investing in the market index, and the significance of transaction costs varies upon the amount of capital invested in the portfolios.