Background: Risk management has always been a complex topic, especially when it comes to hedge funds. Since hedge funds are able to utilize many kinds of financial instruments it is difficult to find a risk management strategy that goes well with them. Not much research regarding the Swedish hedge fund industry and its risk management has been done; hence we find it an interesting topic to focus this thesis on. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to increase the knowledge of how Swedish hedge fund managers perceive and manage different types of risk and how they construct their portfolios with regards to risk management. We also want to investigate how risk measurements are used when it comes to risk management and how valid they are when applied to hedge funds. Method: In this thesis a combination of exploratory and descriptive research strategies are used. The research method used is the inductive method. A qualitative study is performed as well as a semi-structured interview technique. Conclusion: We conclude that the definitions of risk are ambiguous and differed greatly between the hedge fund managers. The risk in the hedge funds is managed differently depending on manager’s opinion regarding the nature and controllability of risk. We found that all managers agree on that risk is controllable to some degree but that there are always limits and that an uncertainty aspect is at all times present in a portfolio. The fund managers have to use their experience and knowledge in conjunction with an active risk management to run an efficient hedge fund. We conclude that all managers realize the importance of risk management, not only as a tool to achieve superior returns but also as an incentive for investors to choose their hedge fund over others. We conclude that hedge fund managers believe that there is a need for restrictions and limits within their funds. It can be argued that by enforcing and following restrictions and limits the fund has established a foundation to build its risk management and investment philosophy upon. The larger hedge funds relied on strict enforcement of their rules and guidelines and had a high degree of hierarchy; the managers of the smaller hedge funds seemed to have a higher degree of freedom and a less complicated investment process. We also find that the smaller a firm is the less enthusiasm is expressed regarding the usage of the different risk variables in their risk management and it is expressed to be more of a demand from different stakeholders. We conclude also that even though the risk measurements are used mostly in the larger firms one is still aware that they are not able to capture all the risks. Their validity is questioned by all sizes of firms.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-05-08T14:44:48Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 arquivototal.pdf: 595975 bytes, checksum: 8cf7a61f41118265dc951e4423f7f656 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009-07-01 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / The Theory of Behavior Finance shows an approach that faces the Modern Theory of Finance, when considering some features such as psychology, emotional and social, that make the decisions of the economic agents. Regarding to the decisions based on whether rational or cognitive foundations, this work aims at analyzing, through a descriptive research, the prize expectation by the pupils of Economics at UFPB. The research population was classified into four major groups, concerning to the knowledge of Finance and Financial Market and each group counts of 20 students. A questionnaire was accomplished to collect the data. The main results points out that in average the students who have less knowledge about the financial market are those who also have lower risk behave and that the groups have different perception of risk measurement. Also, it can be pointed out that the different perception of the risk makes the difference of prize exigencies by the pupils and that the dispersion of the exigencies is smaller as the knowledge of the risk is stronger. / A Teoria das Finanças Comportamentais apresenta uma abordagem que se defronta com a Teoria Moderna de Finanças, por considerar a existência de fatores, como os de ordem psicológica, emocional e social, que influenciam as decisões dos agentes econômicos. No âmbito da discussão sobre as tomadas de decisões dos indivíduos, baseada em fundamentos racionais ou influenciada por vieses cognitivos, o presente trabalho teve como escopo analisar, por meio de uma pesquisa descritiva, as exigências de prêmio por parte dos alunos do curso de Economia da UFPB. A população foi classificada em quatro grupos de acordo com o suposto nível de conhecimento sobre Finanças e Mercado Financeiro e a amostra, por conveniência, correspondeu a 20 alunos em cada grupo. Os dados foram coletados através da aplicação de questionários. Os principais resultados indicaram de que, em média, os alunos que, teoricamente, detém menos informações ou conhecimento sobre o mercado financeiro, apresentam um comportamento menos aversivo ao risco e de que os grupos interpretam distintamente as diferentes medidas de riscos. Além disso, constatou-se que as grandes diferenças quanto às exigências de prêmios entre os alunos podem ser justificadas pelas diferentes interpretações sobre os riscos e que, quanto maior o nível de conhecimento, menor a dispersão nessas exigências.

The market for decentralised financial instruments, more commonly known as cryptocurrencies, has gained momentum over the past recent years and the application areas are many. Modern portfolio theory has for years demonstrated its applicability to traditional assets, such as equities and other instruments, but to some extent omitted the application of mathematical portfolio theory with respect for cryptocurrencies. This master's thesis aims to evaluate both traditional and DeFi assets from a modern optimization perspective. The focus area includes whichallocation structures that minimize the risk-adjusted return. The optimizations strategies are based on the risk measures, standard deviation, Conditional Value at Risk and First linear partial moment. The method has its structure in different scenarios where the outcome is optimized for traditional assets, DeFi assets and a hybrid set of these. The input data for the optimization methodology is based on weekly and adjusted price data for the assets. The output variables are weight-distribution, risk levels, return, maximum drawdown and graphic visualizations. Our results show that there is a value in incorporating parts of assets from the decentralized financial world in a portfolio provided that the risk-adjusted ratio increases through but through both higher returns and higher potential risk. These results are based on incorporation of certain parts of the new landscape where more established assets such as Bitcoin, Ethereum etc. have proven to perform well while other assets that are less traded shows a significantly worse result relative to risk. / Marknaden för decentraliserade finansiella instrument, mer känt som kryptovalutor, har tagit sin fart de senaste åren och applikationsområdena är många. Modern portföljteori har i åratal visat sin tillämpbarhet på traditionella tillgångar, såsom aktier och andra instrument, men till en viss grad utelämnat applicering av matematisk portföljteori med avseende på kryptovalutor. Denna master uppsats ämnar till att utvärdera både traditionella och DeFi tillgångar ur ett modernt optimerings-perspektiv. Fokusområdet innefattar vilka allokeringsstrukturer som minimerar den risk justerade avkastningen. Optimeringsstrategierna baseras på riskmåtten, standardavvikelse, Conditional Value at Risk samt First linear partial moment. Metodiken har sin grundstruktur i olika scenarion där man studerat optimerade utfall för traditionella tillgångar, DeFi tillgångar samt en hybrid uppsättning av dessa.  Ingångsdatan till optimeringsmetodiken baseras på veckovis och justerad prisdata för tillgångarna. Utgångsvariablerna är allkokeringsfördelning, risknivåer, avkastning, maximum drawdown samt grafiska visualiseringar.  Våra resultat visar att det finns det finns ett värde i att omstrukturera sin portfölj med delar av tillgångar från den decentraliserade finansvärlden under förutsättningarna att riskjusterade kvoten ökar genom men genom både högre avkastning och högre potentiell risk. Dessa resultat bygger på inkorporering av vissa delar av de nya landskapet där mer etablerade tillgångar som Bitcoin, Ethereum etc. har visat sig prestera bra medans andra tillgångar som är mindre omsatta visar ett avsevärt sämre resultat relativt risk.