In this master thesis, we compare three different types of funding alternatives from a Swedish municipality's point of view, with the main focus on analysing a Nikkei-linked loan. We do this by analysing the resulting interest rate and the expected exposures, taking collateral into consideration. We conclude, with certainty, that there are many alternatives for funding and that they each need to be analysed and compared on many levels to be able to make a correct decision as to which ones to choose. An important part of this is to consider the implications of the newest regulations and risk exposure, as it might greatly influence the final price for contracts. Between the cases that we considered, the SEK bond was the one with the lowest resulting spread, and the one which is the simplest considering the collateral involved. While other alternatives might be better depending on how profitable it is for the municipality to receive collateral, the SEK bond is the most transparent one and with least risk involved.

Submitted by Rodolfo Nunes Luterman (rluterman@gmail.com) on 2013-03-04T23:00:25Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação - Rodolfo Luterman - MPFE - Final.PDF: 1375397 bytes, checksum: 34f856bb109f53df096fcee82bee8a89 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Suzinei Teles Garcia Garcia (suzinei.garcia@fgv.br) on 2013-03-05T13:20:00Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação - Rodolfo Luterman - MPFE - Final.PDF: 1375397 bytes, checksum: 34f856bb109f53df096fcee82bee8a89 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2013-03-05T13:27:59Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação - Rodolfo Luterman - MPFE - Final.PDF: 1375397 bytes, checksum: 34f856bb109f53df096fcee82bee8a89 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-02-04 / Volatility risk plays an important role in the management of portfolios of derivative assets as well as portfolios of basic assets. This risk is currently managed in financial markets abroad with the use of several instruments, including volatility derivatives. However, a volatility derivatives market in Brazil is still a gap to be fulfilled in the future, maybe due to the lower liquidity of options or even the lack of all the required assets for the replicating portfolio. The objective of this paper is to introduce a straightforward model for pricing volatility swaps on BRL, encouraging further dialog between the academic and practitioner communities on this theme that would lead to the development of such market drawing on the best of both worlds. In order to value this instrument, the design and valuation of it is presented in details as the basic ingredients of a successful financial product. The numerical results show that the proposed model can be considered as a powerful instrument to hedge volatility risk. An additional benefit of this work is that it will provide the risks and benefits from using such instrument with BRL. / A volatilidade possui um papel central na gestão de risco tanto de portfólios de derivativos como de portfólios de ativos não alavancados. Este risco é gerenciado nos mercados financeiros através de diversos instrumentos, incluindo o uso de derivativos de volatilidade. No entanto, um mercado de derivativos de volatilidade no Brasil ainda é uma lacuna a ser preenchida, talvez pela baixa liquidez em determinadas opções ou mesmo pela falta de todos os ativos necessários para se estabelecer o portfólio replicante para os mesmos. O objetivo deste trabalho é apresentar um modelo simples de se apreçar swaps de volatilidade sob o BRL, estimulando um diálogo entre a comunidade acadêmica e os praticantes do mercado que permita o desenvolvimento de derivativos de volatilidade ao considerar o melhor de cada grupo. Para se apreçar este instrumento, a modelagem e os ativos utilizados são apresentados em detalhes como sendo os ingredientes básicos de um produto financeiro de sucesso. Os resultados numéricos demonstram que o modelo proposto pode ser considerado um poderoso instrumento para se realizar o hedge do risco de volatilidade. Um benefício adicional deste trabalho é apresentar os riscos e benefícios de se utilizar este instrumento com o BRL.

This thesis has an aim to create a hedging strategy for currency risks for exporting company. The main reason for hedging are possible losses that can be triggered by changes in exchange rate. In the case of exchange rate changes exporting company may face three different types of exposure: transaction, translation and economic exposure. This thesis concentrates on transaction exposure and builds a hedging strategy for exporting company AAA a.s. This firm is analyzed from qualitative side as well as from quantitative which is presented in the form of historical overview of the company and its position in international group. Based on this analysis as well as on theoretical findings, the hedging strategy for AAA a.s. was proposed. This strategy uses external and internal means of hedging.

Radial basis function methods exhibit several very attractive properties such as a high order convergence of the approximated solution and flexibility to the domain geometry. However the method in its classical formulation becomes impractical for problems with relatively large numbers of degrees of freedom due to the ill-conditioning and dense structure of coefficient matrix. To overcome the latter issue we employ a localisation technique, namely a partition of unity method, while the former issue was previously addressed by several authors and was of less concern in this thesis. In this thesis we develop radial basis function partition of unity methods for partial differential equations arising in financial mathematics and glaciology. In the applications of financial mathematics we focus on pricing multi-asset equity and credit derivatives whose models involve several stochastic factors. We demonstrate that localised radial basis function methods are very effective and well-suited for financial applications thanks to the high order approximation properties that allow for the reduction of storage and computational requirements, which is crucial in multi-dimensional problems to cope with the curse of dimensionality. In the glaciology application we in the first place make use of the meshfree nature of the methods and their flexibility with respect to the irregular geometries of ice sheets and glaciers. Also, we exploit the fact that radial basis function methods are stated in strong form, which is advantageous for approximating velocity fields of non-Newtonian viscous liquids such as ice, since it allows to avoid a full coefficient matrix reassembly within the nonlinear iteration. In addition to the applied problems we develop a least squares radial basis function partition of unity method that is robust with respect to the node layout. The method allows for scaling to problem sizes of a few hundred thousand nodes without encountering the issue of large condition numbers of the coefficient matrix. This property is enabled by the possibility to control the coefficient matrix condition number by the rate of oversampling and the mode of refinement.

My thesis is concentrated on basic types of securities, derivates and hedge accounting according to Czech legislation and International Financial Reporting. The main part is about equity, debt securities and forms of derivates and their accounting and presentation at the statements.

Basic motive for the work comes out of the hypothesis of growing need of non-financial Czech companies to manage foreign exchange risk, which is demonstrated by foreign trade development. In the work, there are also specified basic species of entrepreneurial risks. Main attention of the writing is paid to currency hedging by finance derivatives, like futures, forwards, swaps and options. Single chapters are dedicated to their basic characteristics and to their function logic and, above all, to alternatives of their usage for currency hedging in different situations at Czech nonfinancial companies.

This dissertation thesis focuses on complex analysis of the problem, which is the sovereign debt crisis in the Euro area. The aim of this paper is to provide a complex overview and analysis of the current sovereign debt crisis, from the theoretical definition of the term, through an analysis of the causes and consequences of this crisis to outline the economic policy response to it. The text is divided into two parts. The first part deals with theoretical problem solving. In the second part is analyzed and described course of sovereign debt crisis. This section also analyzes in detail causes and consequences of the sovereign debt crisis in certain countries. This section is completed by an analysis of economic policy response to the sovereign debt crisis and an expert estimate of the future development of public debt countries analyzed.

This thesis focuses on concept of European Modular System. It describes its characteristics, main advantages and disadvantages and experiences of other countries. A separate chapter focuses on swap bodies so that modular heavy goods vehicles can be compared to them in practical part of this thesis. Aim of this thesis is to evaluate what is better for transport of particular goods, if classical semi-trailer unit with maximum allowed length of 16,5 m, combined transport road-rail with use of swap bodies or modular heavy goods vehicle. Costs, transpotation times and emissions will be compared in this section. The thesis also aims at evaluating if main arguments of opponents of this concept are eligible or not.

Tre musikinstrument – En röst. En studie om omställningsprocessen mellan ett träblåsinstrument till ett annat. Detta område omfattar tvärflöjt- oboe- och altsaxofonspel. Arbetet bygger på observationer av en sex veckor lång instuderingsprocess, sett i relation till ett urval av tidigare forskning och högskoleuppsatser inom området. Studien har i syfte att utforska omställningsprocessen när jag byter från det ena blåsinstrumentet till det andra. Detta för att ge en djupare inblick i en multiinstrumentalists vardag och belysa de fenomen som ligger till grund för spelet för respektive instrument och som sedan tas med i omställningsprocessen. Denna kvalitativa studie utgår från ett livsvärldsperspektiv och metod är loggboksskrivande samt videodokumentation. Resultatet bärs upp av två teman: Inre röst och instrumentbyte-muskelbyte som står för mentala respektive fysiska handlingar. Efter resultatet följer en diskussion som sätts i förhållande till litteratur och tidigare forskning inom området. Arbetet avslutas med tankar om dess betydelse samt möjligheter till framtida forskning. / Three musical instruments – One voice. A study of the conversion process between a woodwind instrument to another. This area includes the flute, oboe and the alto saxophone. This study is based on observations of a six-week rehearsal process in relation to a sample of previous research and academic papers in the field. The study is aimed to explore the conversion process when I switch from one wind instrument to the other. This is to provide a deeper insight into a multiinstrumentalists everyday life and highlight all the phenomena that form the basis of the play for each instrument and then be included in the conversion process. This qualitative study is based on a life-world perspective and method logbook writing and video documentation. The result is supported by two themes: Inner voice and change of instrument-muscle change representing mental and physical actions. After the result is a discussion that is related to the literature and previous research in the area. The work concludes with thoughts about its importance as well as opportunities for future research.

This thesis is focused on the study of advanced methods of interest rate mo- dels calibration. The theoretical part provides introduction to basic terminology of financial mathematics, financial, concretely interest rate derivatives. It presents interest rate models, it is mainly aimed at HJM approach and describes in detail the Libor market model, then introduces the use of Bayesian principle in calcula- ting the probability of MCMC methods. At the end of this section the methods of calibration of volatility to market data are described. The last chapter consists of the practical application of different methods of calibration Libor market model and consequently pricing od interest rate swaption. The introduction describes procedure of arrangement of input data and process of pricing of interest rate derivatives. It is consequently used for the valuation of derivative contract accor- ding to mentioned methods. 1