Thesis advisor: Vyacheslav Fos / In the first essay, I examine the role of cross-listings in the digital token marketplace ecosystem. Using a unique set of publicly available and hand-collected data from 3,625 tokens traded in 108 marketplaces, I find significant increases in price and trading activity around the date of a token’s first cross-listing. Tokens earn a 49% raw cumulative return in the two weeks around the cross-listing date. Global token-trading volume is almost 50 times higher after cross-listing. Using the uniquely heterogeneous characteristics of token marketplaces, I am able to identify specific value-creation channels. I provide the first evidence supporting value creation through network externalities proposed by recent token-valuation models. Consistent with equity cross-listing theory, I find higher returns for cross-listings that reduce market segmentation and improve information production. In the second essay, we analyze a dataset of 4,003 executed and planned ICOs, which raised a total of $12 billion in capital, nearly all since January 2017. We find evidence of significant ICO underpricing, with average returns of 179% from the ICO price to the first day’s opening market price, over a holding period that averages just 16 days. After trading begins, tokens continue to appreciate in price, generating average buy-and-hold abnormal returns of 48% in the first 30 trading days. We also study the determinants of ICO underpricing and relate cryptocurrency prices to Twitter followers and activity. In the third essay, I examine reputation building by activist hedge funds and document two new findings with regard to hostile activism. First, there is evidence of a permanent reputation effect to hostile activism. Activist hedge funds that have engaged in hostile tactics, receive on average a 3% higher CAR [-10,+10] on their subsequent non-hostile campaigns, compared to hedge funds that have never engaged in hostile tactics. This abnormal return is positively correlated with the level of hostile reputation of the campaigning hedge fund. Second, I find that activist hedge funds with more hostile reputation modify their non-hostile activism style to engage “hostile-like” targets and pursue “hostile-like” objectives, but withhold the use of hostile tactics. These findings imply that hedge funds are able to build reputation using their past engagement tactics and that market participants value such reputation as evidenced by the higher announcement return observed in their targets. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2019. / Submitted to: Boston College. Carroll School of Management. / Discipline: Finance.

The purpose of this study is to analyze Swedish hedge funds in terms of pursued investment strategies, risks and returns. The study deals with a large number of quantitative data and delimitations were used to obtain a sample that better fulfills the purpose of this paper. The time frame chosen for increas-ing validity and reliability was almost four years. Furthermore, the study uses secondary data due to difficulties and costs as-sociated with obtaining primary data though this is not consi-dered as lowering the quality of the study. The theory section starts by presenting the differences between hedge funds and mutual funds and then focusing on different hedge fund strategies, risks associated with hedge funds and fi-nally risk and return measurements. This section provides an overview for the empirical findings and analysis. In the empirical findings and analysis, statistical calculations of and Analysis the risk measurements standard deviation, Sharpe ratio, track-ing error and correlation are conducted for the sample. The re-sults are related to the hedge funds strategies. Later on the strategies are weighted against each other. Finally, all strategies are compared to OMXS to find the investors‟ most appropriate investment structure. After categorizing the different hedge funds with respect to pursued strategies, the result shows how there are clear dispari-ties in risk and returns for the different strategies. We found indications of a significant relationship between high return and high risk as well as between low return and low risk.

This thesis applies a Partial Integral Differential Equation model, along with a Monte Carlo approach to quantitatively analyze the no arbitrage value of hedge fund performance fees. From a no-arbitrage point of view, the investor in a hedge fund is providing a free option to the manager of the hedge fund. The no-arbitrage value of this option can be locked in by the hedge fund manager using a simple hedging strategy. Interpolation methods, grid construction techniques and parallel computation techniques are discussed to improve the performance of the numerical methods for valuing this option.

This thesis applies a Partial Integral Differential Equation model, along with a Monte Carlo approach to quantitatively analyze the no arbitrage value of hedge fund performance fees. From a no-arbitrage point of view, the investor in a hedge fund is providing a free option to the manager of the hedge fund. The no-arbitrage value of this option can be locked in by the hedge fund manager using a simple hedging strategy. Interpolation methods, grid construction techniques and parallel computation techniques are discussed to improve the performance of the numerical methods for valuing this option.

<p>The purpose of this study is to analyze Swedish hedge funds in terms of pursued investment strategies, risks and returns.</p><p>The study deals with a large number of quantitative data and delimitations were used to obtain a sample that better fulfills the purpose of this paper. The time frame chosen for increas-ing validity and reliability was almost four years. Furthermore, the study uses secondary data due to difficulties and costs as-sociated with obtaining primary data though this is not consi-dered as lowering the quality of the study.</p><p>The theory section starts by presenting the differences between hedge funds and mutual funds and then focusing on different hedge fund strategies, risks associated with hedge funds and fi-nally risk and return measurements. This section provides an overview for the empirical findings and analysis.</p><p>In the empirical findings and analysis, statistical calculations of and Analysis the risk measurements standard deviation, Sharpe ratio, track-ing error and correlation are conducted for the sample. The re-sults are related to the hedge funds strategies. Later on the strategies are weighted against each other. Finally, all strategies are compared to OMXS to find the investors‟ most appropriate investment structure.</p><p>After categorizing the different hedge funds with respect to pursued strategies, the result shows how there are clear dispari-ties in risk and returns for the different strategies. We found indications of a significant relationship between high return and high risk as well as between low return and low risk.</p><p> </p>

<p>This dissertation includes two parts. The first part examines the preventive effect of hedge fund activism against corporate policy deviations. Using stock liquidity and mutual fund fire sales as instruments, I find that when the likelihood of hedge fund activism increases, firms respond by paying shareholder more and CEOs less, holding less cash and leveraging more, and increasing investment into research and development while cutting capital expenditures. These results imply that hedge fund activism has a stronger and broader impact on corporate policy than previously documented. The second part critically examines capital flow-induced mutual fund trades as an exogenous proxy for changes in stock price. I find that liquidity-strapped mutual funds sell widely across all portfolio holdings but the extreme capital outflows could be driven by the performance of portfolio holdings in the first place.</p> / Dissertation

St. Gallen, University, Diss., 2005.

Zugl.: Münster (Westfalen), Univ., Diss., 2005 u.d.T.: Eling, Martin: Hedgefonds-Strategien und ihre Performance im Asset-Management von Finanzdienstleistungsunternehmen

Zugl.: Berlin, Univ., Diss., 2003.

Diss. Universität Tübingen, 2008. / Business and Economics (German Language) (Springer-11775) (GWV).