While the much more use of leverage could be effective in generating alpha o investment, the Kelly strategy is an attractive approach to capital creation and growth. It is originated from the Kelly criterion dubbed ¡§ fortunes formula ¡§ which maximizes the long run growth rate of wealth. There is a tradeoff of rate of return versus risk/volatility as a asymptotic function solution of leverage or position size determined by the application of EGARCH model in the different residual assumptions given by the Normal, Generalized Hyperbolic, and the Generalized Error distributions. No matter there is any timing ability in any strategy, risk management is much more important especially with many repeated trading. We present the performance and risk control of the leveraged ETFs tracked the S&P 500 index in the past ten years using optimal leverage strategy derived by the full Kelly and fraction Kelly criterion.

Magister Commercii - MCom / Since the listing of the Satrix 40 in November 2000, Exchange Traded Fund (ETFs) have grown to become an investment vehicle of choice amongst retail and institutional investors of the Johannesburg Securities Exchange (JSE). Albeit gaining such an enormous traction, investors' remains curious about ETFs ability to successfully replicate the movements of their target benchmark indices and also their capability to yield arbitrage profit opportunity through mispricing. In addition to that, investors are also interested to know whether ETFs as an index tracking investment vehicle are resilient in variously cycles of the economy. Motivated by this gap in the body of knowledge, this research undertakes to evaluate the tracking ability and pricing efficiency of 19 ETFs listed on the JSE over various cycles of the economy. According to Faulkner, Loewald and Makrelov (2013) South African economy experienced the effect of the 2008 global financial crisis between 1 September 2008 and 30 June 2009. For that reason, the examination period of this research is segmented into four main categories namely: full examination period which spans from the launch date of each of the ETF under review until 30 September 2015, pre-crisis period that is between the launch date and 29August 2008, crisis-period dated 1 September 2008 and 30 June 2009 and the post-crisis or the recovery phase being 1 July 2009 through 30 September 2015. The tracking ability results across all the sub-periods suggested that, on average, ETFs yields daily returns which closely resemble that of their target benchmark indices but with relatively high level of volatility. With regard to the tracking error as another tracking ability measurement, it was discovered that the ETFs under review were inadequately replicating the movements of their target benchmark indices irrespective of the economic cycle. In tandem with the evidence documented by Mateus and Rahmani (2014) from the London Stock Exchange (LSE), tracking errors were substantially high during the 2008 global financial crisis as opposed to the prior and the post crisis period. Across all the examination periods, sizeable amount of tracking error was found to be associated to the ETFs which mimics the international broad-market access underlying indices. Amongst other things, the diversity of these indices as well as the trading hours overlap between the JSE and their host market were found to be the key attributing factors. On the contrary, ETFs which replicates most liquid target benchmark indices such as the FTSE/JSE Top 40 index appeared to have lower tracking error on relative basis. In this regard, the liquidity of the FTSE/JSE Top 40 index proved to be the main attribute. Apart from the diversity or the liquidity of indices, the length of the examination period also had a significant influence towards the magnitude of tracking errors. In this instance, shorter examination period were found to be characterised by noise or volatility in the market which makes it difficult for the ETFs providers to promptly rebalance their portfolios and align them to their target benchmark indices. Over and above these factors, this research discovered that tracking errors across all the sub-periods were largely driven by management fees and daily volatility of the ETFs market prices, more especially during the crisis period. On the one hand, trading volume and the effect of dividends distribution had a negative influence towards the magnitude of tracking errors. On the question of how efficient these 19 ETFs are, the empirical findings revealed that significant deviation between the ETFs closing price and the Net Asset Value (NAV) does exist either being a discount or premium. In line with the prior work on the JSE by Charteris (2013), ETFs which mimics local based indices were found to be trading mostly on a discount to the NAV whilst the opposite was true in the case of the international broad-market access ETFs. At the same token, international broad-market access ETFs portrayed sizeable amount of premiums across all the cycles of the economy. In line with the analysis of tracking errors, such enormous premiums were mainly driven by lack of synchronicity in the trading hours between the JSE and host market wherein these ETFs target benchmark indices are listed. Empirical literature suggests that ETFs that exhibit discount and premium which fails to persist for more than one trading day are deemed to be efficiently priced since there is limited opportunity to arbitrage. On that note, this research found that mispricing of ETFs which mimics most liquid indices such as the domestic broad-market access and sectorial indices disappears within a period of one trading day. For that reason, majority of these ETFs were considered to be efficiently priced against their NAV. Contrarily, discounts and premiums exhibited by ETFs which mostly replicate style based and the international broad-market access indices appeared to be persistent even to the fifth trading day. From the attribution point of view, the complexity of these ETFs underlying indices as well as the trading hours overlap between the JSE and the host market of these indices were found to be the main drivers of such level of mispricing. In addition to that, attribution analysis through linear regression proved that transaction cost (bid-ask spread), daily volatility of the ETFs market prices as well as the impact of trading volume had a positive influence towards the existence of discounts and premiums observed across all sub-periods.

This paper analyzes U.S. factor ETF risk exposures and diversification benefits relative to the ETFs’ academic factor portfolios. The purpose of the paper is to observe whether the factor ETFs’ correlations and risk exposures reflect that of their academic factor portfolios, the long-short and long-only portfolios. The results exhibit the market factor as the fundamental agent of returns, although size, value, and momentum also provide exposure to the intended factors. When measuring the loadings of factor ETFs and their intended factor portfolios, the long-short investing approach provides the most optimal diversification strategy.

We estimate the proportions of skilled, unskilled, and zero-alpha funds preva- lent in the mutual Funds population easily accessible by Czech Investors. We estimate alphas from a regression against a concise set of Exchange Traded Funds and control for luck using False Discovery rate. We design a straight- forward ETF selection algorithm and find that if investors adhere to simple diversification rules, they can outperform a large proportion of mutual funds. We further document a negative relationship between the performance of mu- tual funds and its Total Expense ratio, suggesting that portfolio managers are on average unable to compensate their costs with better performance. JEL Classification C12, C20, G12, G23 Keywords Mutual Funds, Exchange Traded Funds, Perfor- mance evaluation Title Do mutual funds offered in Czech Republic add value to investors?

In two unrelated papers, we examine different aspects of mutual fund performance and other issues. In the first chapter, we look at exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and how they differ from index funds in performance and tracking error. Using daily data and a more comprehensive sample than past research, we find abnormal returns associated with the ETFs are higher than the alphas of the index funds in most cases. The results are much more prevalent in funds that follow the S&P 500 than funds that do not. When examining the tracking errors, we find index funds are able to track their indexes much better than ETFs and domestic ETFs are better than ETFs that track international indexes. In our most significant finding, we find that tracking error affects fund flow in the following period. While fund flows are generally increasing for both ETFs and index funds, funds that track their respective index better increase their net assets by a larger percentage than funds that track their index less well. In the second chapter, we look at the differences in performance and characteristics of mutual funds as they relate to the manager's gender. Using a larger sample and different techniques than have been used in the past, we find some differences in our matched comparison which suggest female managers have a lower risk tolerance than males. Females also tend to hold a higher number of assets (stocks) and fewer assets in their top 10 holdings than do male managers. In, pooled regressions, we find weak, but significant evidence that current female fund managers, when analyzed as a group, show slightly lower performance than male managers. We then analyze performance within funds over time. Our most consistent result is that when changing the composition of fund management, regardless of gender, the new management has significantly greater performance than prior management. We also find some evidence, although not conclusive, that the percentage of female managers managing a fund is negatively related to the fund's performance over time. Finally, we find the determinants of abnormal returns cannot be attributed to the fund manager's gender.

This thesis focuses on the derivatives market. The goal is to choose ones that are suitable for use for the benefit of family finances and planning. Mapping the world market derivatives, and then describes the basic characteristics of the main types of contracts. After the general characteristics of the derivatives in the introduction, are briefly described two types (forwads and swaps) that are not directly used in the family finances. In their description, however, are pointed out the fundamental principles of derivatives and trading with them. In the next section, the focus is on those derivatives that are suitable for use in household budgets. They include Futures, Options, Warrants, Investment Certificates, Exchange Traded Funds (ETF), Contracts for diference (CFD). There are also discussed basic principles of these instruments, their use and the current bid.

The aim with this thesis is to investigate whether increased capital flows to ESG screened indexes create higher price-to-earnings (P/E) ratios and momentum in the included stocks during the chosen time period of three years, from 2018 to 2020. The thesis will evaluate the capital flows to ESG indexes and compare both performance and P/E ratios between those and their corresponding Mother indexes. The study will also look at the development of capital flows, performance and P/E ratios separately in the four chosen geographical indexes; Global, Europe, US and Emerging Markets. The theoretical framework goes through four relevant subjects for this study; passive investing, ESG, momentum and the P/E ratio. The study has shown that the capital flows in all four ESG indexes increased during the chosen time period. Moreover, it could be proven that three out of four ESG indexes outperformed their Mother indexes, namely, Global, Europe and Emerging Markets. In the U.S. the Mother index outperformed the ESG index. Three out of four geographical indexes also had a higher increase in the average P/E ratio than their mother indexes. Here, the Global market stood out as the one that had a lower increase in P/E ratio than its Mother index. Lastly, regression analyses were made to see the relationship between the variables capital flows, average P/E ratios in the indexes and the performance of the indexes. The study showed significantly that capital flows is the explanatory variable for the increased P/E ratios on the European ESG index. However, for the other indexes no significant correlation could be proved. This led to an interesting discussion and conclusion, and also left us with a question mark. What is the reason behind this result on the European market, and why was it not possible to see any significant correlation on the other markets? Further research in this field is needed and some ideas are discussed in the last chapter of the thesis.

No description available.

L’objectif de cette thèse est d’étudier le processus social de légitimation des produits financiers en prenant comme exemple le développement des Exchange Traded Funds (ETF) en France. En dépit de la complexification de leur « dispositif de calcul » les encours des ETF ont connu une progression rapide. L'essor de ces innovations s'explique par l'effort de légitimation entrepris par les promoteurs. Contrairement à l'approche néo-institutionnaliste qui se focalise sur la dimension cognitive, nous partons des interdépendances pour comprendre le processus social de légitimation. Nous étudions ce processus en combinant une enquête ethnographique fondée sur des entretiens semi-directifs et des observations non-participantes avec une analyse du réseau social d'échange d'information entre les marketeurs, les traders, les journalistes, les investisseurs et les académiques. Nous montrons qu'il existe une « niche sociale » où des acteurs-promoteurs coopèrent entre eux. Ils relaient, auprès des diffuseurs d'information que sont les journalistes, un discours fondé sur les dimensions positives de leur innovation. Ils s'appuient, pour cela, sur le « contrôle social » qu'ils exercent sur la presse économique. Enfin, ces promoteurs s'associent à l'institut de recherche en finance Edhec-Risk afin de fonder la légitimité de leurs produits sur le statut académique de ce partenaire. / The focus of this thesis is to study the social process of legitimizing financial products, focusing primarily on Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) in France. Despite the complex nature of their « calculative device », ETFs have grown rapidly. This can be explained through promoters’ legitimizing efforts. Unlike neo-institutional theory which focuses on the cognitive dimension, this will emphasize the role of interdependencies and relationships in studying legitimizing efforts. This study is based on ethnographic research with semi-structured interviews and non-participant observations during conferences. We combine this qualitative research method with quantitative analysis of the network of information exchanged between marketers, traders, journalists, investors, regulators and academics. We evidence the existence of a « social niche » where competitors cooperate. The promoters exert social control on financial journalists to relay the positive aspects of their financial products. They also collaborate with EDHEC-Risk Institute to benefit from its academic status and gain more legitimacy.

Submitted by Codie Ann Sanchez (codie.sanchez2015@fgvmail.br) on 2015-01-26T14:16:15Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Codie Sanchez - Thesis - 11-5-14.pdf: 11157706 bytes, checksum: 347b152ee482bcd0fa94a753c10cfc20 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Janete de Oliveira Feitosa (janete.feitosa@fgv.br) on 2015-01-28T14:07:16Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Codie Sanchez - Thesis - 11-5-14.pdf: 11157706 bytes, checksum: 347b152ee482bcd0fa94a753c10cfc20 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Marcia Bacha (marcia.bacha@fgv.br) on 2015-02-05T15:58:07Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Codie Sanchez - Thesis - 11-5-14.pdf: 11157706 bytes, checksum: 347b152ee482bcd0fa94a753c10cfc20 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-02-05T16:02:44Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Codie Sanchez - Thesis - 11-5-14.pdf: 11157706 bytes, checksum: 347b152ee482bcd0fa94a753c10cfc20 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-10-30 / This paper examines the current Chilean and Brazilian pension markets, how these pension markets are structured, how they have historically invested their portfolios in ETFs and how they utilize Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs). This investigation will give an overview of the current pension landscape in each country, ETFs and ETF managers in the region, as well as distribution allowances and regulations for ETF providers within the region. Finally it will offer insights throughout that will be useful to those building a business or creating an expansion plan in Brazil or Chile.