The recent decades have seen many periods of economic uncertainty. During uncertain periods characterized by inflation where the real value of assets tends to depreciate, investors usually look for assets that can reduce the risk for their overall portfolio. This study aims to investigate whether copper can act as a hedge against the U.S. inflation. This purpose will be investigated through an econometric analysis (OLS) where time series data over the timespan 1990-2023 are analyzed. The result suggests and argues that copper should be considered a hedge against inflation in the U.S. However, the results from the analysis must be viewed with caution, due to the fact that multicollinearity exists in the model and that an OLS regression gives a simplified picture of a complex topic.

Revenue insurance with shallow loss protection for farmers has been introduced recently. A common attribute of most shallow loss proposals is that they would be arearevenue triggered. The impact on optimal hedge ratios of combining these shallow loss insurance proposals with deep loss farm-level insurance is examined. Since crop insurance, commodity programs and forward pricing are commonly used concurrently to manage crop revenue risk, the optimal combinations of these tools are explored. Numerical analysis in the presence of yield, basis and futures price variability is used to find the futures hedge ratio which maximizes the certainty equivalent of a risk averse producer. The results generally reveal a lower optimal hedge ratio with area-insurance than with individual insurance and show that shallow loss revenue insurance tends to slightly increase optimal hedge ratios.

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Thesis (MComm (Business Management))--Stellenbosch University, 2008. / This study aims to look at the definition of the group of alternative investments commonly known as ‘hedge funds’, in order to better understand why regulatory bodies the world over are vehemently working on introducing new legislation and guidelines as a means of maintaining market security and integrity in order to ensure adequate investor protection. This study posits that the two most viable options available to regulatory bodies to ensure effective implementation of these changes are (i) to either further restrict access to hedge funds and thereby curb their ‘retailization’ and/or (ii) to introduce rigorous levels of disclosure on the part of hedge funds and their intermediaries. It is the objective of this study to establish that for either of these options to be attained, tangible improvement in both the quantity and quality of information disclosure from hedge funds and their intermediaries about their positions, strategies and exposures in a manner that would enable them to continue to provide the market efficiency-enhancing services that they currently offer. After introducing all the key issues that have motivated this resolve, the study looks at the current regulatory environment and the challenges facing regulators such as the varying degrees of banking freedom offered by different states and jurisdictions. Proposed changes to current legislation are also considered across several jurisdictions. The results from the local market field study set the platform for recommendations to be investigated in future studies in order to provide guidelines for the supervision of the hedge fund industry.

Funds of qualified investors Recent events in the financial world emphasize the need to understand institutions and instruments of capital market. From that reason I have chosen the area of funds of qualified investors. The aim of my thesis is to examine the treatment of funds of qualified investors, to characterize the main changes the funds have come through and to carry out a comparative analysis of similar funds which are intended for professional investors abroad and to focus on strict European legislation in this area which has an effect on the Czech funds of qualified investors and assess influence of the legislation on them. The thesis is structured into six chapters, each of them dealing with different aspects of the funds of qualified investors. The first chapter is introductory and introduces basic terminology of the subjects of collective investment; the chapter is divided into three subchapters. Subchapter one describes collective investment in the context of financial market, the second subchapter concerns the main principles of collective investment and in the third subchapter there are explained advantages and disadvantages of collective investment. The second chapter introduces the legislation of collective investment in the Czech Republic; it is also divided into three...

This diploma thesis deals with hedge funds' strategies' analysis. First part is about an introduction into collective investment schemes, shares funds and investment funds. The reader can find the pros and cons of collective investment schemes in the next part. The second section focuses on investment approaches of four hedge fund strategies: global macro, directional, event-driven and relative value, whereby the strategies' classification corresponds with the most common databases of financial providers. They are divided into subcategories and each strategy is characterized by its principle. Special attention is paid to a specific kind of a hedge fund, the so called Fund of Funds. The strategies' rates of return in different market conditions are compared in the conclusion.

Dado o recente cenário econômico brasileiro, caracterizado por incertezas políticas e instabilidades econômicas, é essencial que as empresas engajem uma política de hedge, como parte de sua política financeira, com o objetivo de evitar que seus resultados sejam afetados por fricções de mercado. Neste contexto, o presente trabalho teve como objetivo verificar o impacto da política de hedge sobre os custos de agência das empresas brasileiras. Os resultados obtidos foram de encontro com a literatura sobre hedge e custos de agência, foi encontrado que quanto maior a utilização do hedge, menor são os custos de agência enfrentados pelos acionistas. Essa relação demonstra que ao engajar a utilização do hedge na política financeira da empresa, o gestor passa a minimizar os impactos das fricções de mercado, e reduz as perdas residuais que os acionistas sofreriam em suas riquezas, caso o gestor não engajasse a política. Ainda, conforme sugerido por Dadalt, Gay e Nam (2002), outro benefício encontrado nesse resultado, é que ao reduzir os impactos das fricções de mercado nos lucros da empresa, o gestor informa aos stakeholders, um lucro que demonstra melhor a performance da companhia, assim credores e investidores podem tomar melhores decisões referentes aos contratos com a empresa, com base em um lucro que contém menor informação assimétrica. Dessa forma, a utilização da política de hedge pode aliviar problemas relacionadas a seleção adversa entre a empresa e seus stakeholders / Given the recent Brazilian economic scenario, characterized by political uncertainties and economic instabilities, it is essential that companies engage in a hedge policy as part of their financial policy, in order to prevent their results from being affected by market frictions. In this context, the present study aimed to verify the impact of the hedge policy on the agency costs of Brazilian companies. The results obtained were in agreement with the literature on hedge and agency costs, it was found that the greater the use of hedge, the lower the agency costs faced by the shareholders. This relationship demonstrates that by engaging the use of hedge in the company\'s financial policy, the manager starts to minimize the impacts of market frictions and reduces the residual losses that shareholders would suffer in their wealth if the manager did not engage the policy. As suggested by Dadalt, Gay and Nam (2002), another benefit found in this result is that by reducing the impacts of market frictions on company profits, the manager informs stakeholders of a profit that best demonstrates the performance of the company, so creditors and investors can make better decisions regarding contracts with the company, based on a profit that contains less asymmetric information. In this way, the use of the hedge policy can alleviate problems related to adverse selection between the company and its stakeholders.

A natureza de hedge (proteção) das operações financeiras realizadas em bolsas de valores, mercadorias e futuros e assemelhadas pelas companhias brasileiras é requisito legal para o aproveitamento do benefício da dedutibilidade integral das perdas auferidas e prêmios pagos no cálculo do imposto sobre a renda no Brasil. Entretanto, entraves na comprovação documental destas operações perante a Secretaria da Receita Federal do Brasil (RFB) têm resultado em autuações fiscais e aplicações de multas tributárias milionárias, colocando em cheque os instrumentos de gestão de risco utilizados pelas empresas justamente com o intuito de evitar resultados indesejáveis ou imprevistos. Neste contexto, com fundamento nas prescrições da teoria da agência e com base em estudos empíricos em contabilidade e tributação que discutiram as causas e os efeitos da assimetria de informação, o presente estudo teve por objetivo identificar fatores que afetam a assimetria informacional entre contribuintes e Fisco federal, especificamente no que se refere ao controle, contabilização e comprovação da natureza de hedge de operações financeiras praticadas e o consequente tratamento concedido às perdas no cálculo do Imposto de Renda da Pessoa Jurídica (IRPJ). Por meio da realização de estudo de caso em empresa comercial exportadora autuada em R$ 16.438.314,10 (valor equivalente a 41,08% de seu Patrimônio Líquido em 2004) pelo Fisco federal em 2008, no intuito de glosar as perdas excedentes aos ganhos auferidos com instrumentos derivativos e contratos de swap nos anos-calendários de 2003 e 2004, verificou-se que mesmo diante da existência comprovada de exposição ao risco ex ante de variação de preços de commodities agrícolas (açúcar e etanol) e de cotação de moeda estrangeira, a ausência na legislação brasileira de critérios gerenciais e contábeis claros para a elaboração de controles internos obrigatórios ou de formulários padronizados para a apresentação das informações relativas às operações com instrumentos financeiros em geral (com finalidade de hedge ou não) - os quais não foram integralmente supridos pelas normas contábeis relativas ao hedge accouting vigentes a partir de 2008 -, resultou no agravamento das perdas auferidas pela cobrança adicional do IRPJ. Ademais, por meio de pesquisa documental e análise de conteúdo de decisões administrativas da RFB relativas ao tema \"comprovação de hedge\", foram identificados como fatores decisivos para a redução ou eliminação da assimetria informacional por parte dos contribuintes a correta vinculação das operações financeiras às atividades operacionais da companhia, a modalidade dos instrumentos financeiros selecionados e a estratégia de hedge adotada e, principalmente, a assertividade dos documentos apresentados à fiscalização federal para este fim. Estes resultados corroboram que os mesmos fatores identificados no estudo de caso podem ser atribuídos às demais companhias brasileiras autuadas pela RFB sob o mesmo fundamento - sucesso ou não na comprovação da natureza de hedge das operações financeiras praticadas em determinado período. / The hedge purpose in the financial operations on stock and commodities exchange and similar carried out by companies is legal condition to benefit the full deductibility of accounted losses and paid prizes in the income tax assessment in Brazil. However, obstacles in the documental prove of these operations before Brazilian Federal Revenue Office (RFB) are resulting in tax deficiency notices and millionaire fines\' application, jeopardizing the risk management instruments applied by companies exactly to avoid unexpected and unwanted results. In this sense, based on the agency theory prescriptions and on empirical studies on accounting and tax which discussed the informational asymmetry causes and effects, this paper aimed to identify factors which affect the information asymmetry between taxpayers and federal tax authorities, specifically with regards to controlling, recording and proving financial operations with hedge purposes, and consequently their tax treatment in the Corporate Income Tax (IRPJ) assessment. By means of a case study with a Brazilian trading company which was notified to collect R$ 16,438,314.10 (value equal to 41.08% of its equity in 2004) by Brazilian tax authorities in 2008, in order to disallow the deductibility of losses excessive to gains assessed on derivatives and swap operations on the calendar-years 2003 and 2004, it was verified that even before the proved existence of ex ante exposure to risk of soft commodities (sugar and ethanol) prices and foreign currency variations, Brazilian legislation´s lack with regards to clear both managerial and accounting criteria in elaborating obligatory internal controls or standard sheets to present information related to operations with general financial instruments (with hedge purposes or not) - which was not sufficiently supplied by the accounting Standards related to hedge accounting in force since 2008 -, results in a marginal loss related to the IRPJ additional cost. Moreover, by means of a broad documental research and content analysis of administrative case law issued by RFB and related to hedge prove, it was verified as critical factors to information asymmetry reduction or elimination the adequate compliance of financial operations to company\'s operational activity, the financial instruments applied and hedge strategy selected and mainly the documentation repertory presented to Brazilian tax authorities. This results corroborate that the same factors raised on the case study can be projected to other Brazilian companies also notified by RFB under the same basis - success or not on the prove of hedge purposes of financial operations carried out in determined period.

Under Accounting Statement CPC 38, from 2010 on Brazilian companies started adopting accounting standards correspondent to IAS 39 regarding hedge accounting, whose disclosure is optional and, in cash flow hedge operations, may avoid losses disclosure in the income statements due to deferred values in other comprehensive income (OCI), promoting better earnings disclosure. In this scenario, by means of statistical models we investigate whether firm\'s financial exposure to currency risk and the high exchange rate depreciation environment promote the deferral of losses on firm\'s OCI and, in addition to the tax deferral on exchange gains and losses, the hedge accounting choice for 379 Brazilian listed companies between 2010- 2017. Our results show that firms\' high leverage in foreign currency, the high exchange rate variation on country level and the tax deferral choice influence positively the hedge accounting choice and, consequently, reduce the disclosure of losses on income statements, evidencing potential earnings management activity, since OCI\'s balances are not entirely understood by analysts and investors (even the most sophisticated). Our paper contributes to the disclosure, accounting choice and earnings management theories, highlighting the claim for enhancement of financial instruments accounting standards on uniformity and comparability. / Com o CPC 38, a partir de 2010 as companhias brasileiras passaram a adotar as normas contábeis correspondentes ao IAS 39 no tocante à contabilidade de hedge, cuja divulgação é facultativa e, especificamente em relação ao hedge de fluxo de caixa, pode diferir a divulgação de perdas cambiais em outros resultados abrangentes (ORA) e, consequentemente, promover o disclosure de melhores resultados. Nesse cenário, por meio de modelos estatísticos o estudo investiga se a alta exposição à variação cambial em um ambiente de alta depreciação da taxa de câmbio resulta em diferimento de perdas em ORA e, em conjunto com o diferimento da tributação da variação cambial, promove a escolha da contabilidade de hedge para 379 companhias abertas brasileiras no período de 2010 a 2017. Os resultados evidenciam que a alta alavancagem em moeda estrangeira, a alta depreciação do câmbio e o diferimento da tributação impactam positivamente a escolha pela contabilidade de hedge e, consequentemente, reduzem a divulgação de perdas cambiais no resultado, apontando a existência de gerenciamento de resultados, já que os saldos em ORA não são corretamente interpretados pelos analistas e investidores, mesmo os mais sofisticados. O estudo contribui para as teorias de disclosure, de escolha contábil e de gerenciamento de resultados, e aponta para a necessidade de aprimoramento das normas contábeis relativas a instrumentos financeiros em termos de uniformidade e comparabilidade.

Dado o recente cenário econômico brasileiro, caracterizado por incertezas políticas e instabilidades econômicas, é essencial que as empresas engajem uma política de hedge, como parte de sua política financeira, com o objetivo de evitar que seus resultados sejam afetados por fricções de mercado. Neste contexto, o presente trabalho teve como objetivo verificar o impacto da política de hedge sobre os custos de agência das empresas brasileiras. Os resultados obtidos foram de encontro com a literatura sobre hedge e custos de agência, foi encontrado que quanto maior a utilização do hedge, menor são os custos de agência enfrentados pelos acionistas. Essa relação demonstra que ao engajar a utilização do hedge na política financeira da empresa, o gestor passa a minimizar os impactos das fricções de mercado, e reduz as perdas residuais que os acionistas sofreriam em suas riquezas, caso o gestor não engajasse a política. Ainda, conforme sugerido por Dadalt, Gay e Nam (2002), outro benefício encontrado nesse resultado, é que ao reduzir os impactos das fricções de mercado nos lucros da empresa, o gestor informa aos stakeholders, um lucro que demonstra melhor a performance da companhia, assim credores e investidores podem tomar melhores decisões referentes aos contratos com a empresa, com base em um lucro que contém menor informação assimétrica. Dessa forma, a utilização da política de hedge pode aliviar problemas relacionadas a seleção adversa entre a empresa e seus stakeholders / Given the recent Brazilian economic scenario, characterized by political uncertainties and economic instabilities, it is essential that companies engage in a hedge policy as part of their financial policy, in order to prevent their results from being affected by market frictions. In this context, the present study aimed to verify the impact of the hedge policy on the agency costs of Brazilian companies. The results obtained were in agreement with the literature on hedge and agency costs, it was found that the greater the use of hedge, the lower the agency costs faced by the shareholders. This relationship demonstrates that by engaging the use of hedge in the company\'s financial policy, the manager starts to minimize the impacts of market frictions and reduces the residual losses that shareholders would suffer in their wealth if the manager did not engage the policy. As suggested by Dadalt, Gay and Nam (2002), another benefit found in this result is that by reducing the impacts of market frictions on company profits, the manager informs stakeholders of a profit that best demonstrates the performance of the company, so creditors and investors can make better decisions regarding contracts with the company, based on a profit that contains less asymmetric information. In this way, the use of the hedge policy can alleviate problems related to adverse selection between the company and its stakeholders.