This paper investigates whether the traditional accrual based trading strategy first documented by Sloan (1996) can be refined using fundamental analysis. Specifically, this is done by implementing the composite signal F_SCORE introduced by Piotroski (2000) to identify financially strong or weak firms. We find that by applying both investment models simultaneously, in a model we call P_KOMB, the mean market-adjusted return earned by an investor exploiting the accrual anomaly can be increased by 14.8% annually. This is achieved by taking a long position in strong firms (as defined by the composite signal) in the lowest accrual portfolio, while an offsetting short position is taken in weak firms in the highest accrual portfolio, repeated annually between 1997 and 2007. Consistent with prior studies, positive market-adjusted returns can be attained through assessment of accruals as well as key value drivers found in historical financial data. Moreover, our results indicate that accruals are a more powerful determinant for future return than the fundamentals in the composite signal. The evidence suggests, however, that the accrual anomaly is best exploited in combination with the fundamental signals to maximise returns.

Background Out of the different fund categories hedge funds have had the highest development in Sweden since 1994. Swedish investors’ interest in hedge funds doubled from 2005 to 2006. Hedge funds are said to be an investment with a low risk and not being dependent upon business cycle movements. Historically there have been high initial investments, most often over 100 000 SEK, required to invest in hedge funds. This has started to shift towards lower initial investments. This is a reason why hedge funds start to become interesting to private investors and not only to institutional, and wealthy private investors. Purpose The purpose of this thesis is to explore what different investment strategies and sub strategies that are used within Swedish hedge funds. Also specific risks and risk measurements, depending on investment strategy, will be investigated and compared. Method In order to meet the purpose of this thesis a qualitative approach has been used. A questionnaire, with both closed and open-end questions, was sent to 13 hedge fund managers operating in the Swedish hedge fund market. Afterwards, four semi-structured interviews were conducted. Two of the interviewees are hedge fund managers who also answered the questionnaire. The others were with a person who is a hedge fund analyst and a person working at the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority (SFSA). Conclusion Out of the five different investment strategies investigated the two most widely used in Swedish hedge funds are funds of hedge funds and equity hedge. The sub strategies that are used within the Swedish hedge fund market are those with a focus on low risk. Within Swedish hedge funds there are some specific risks and risk measurements that are useful. Sharpe ratio is best used to compare similar funds. Standard deviation is useful to evaluate each specific hedge fund. How much leverage capital that can be used is decided by SFSA. Yet, the risks depend on the hedge fund manager rather than the investment strategy used. This, due to the fact that the hedge fund managers have an own interest in the hedge fund.

<p>Essentially this project report is a discussion of mathematical modelling in pension funds, presenting sections from Cairns, A.J.D., Blake, D., Dowd, K., Stochastic lifestyling: Optimal dynamic asset allocation for defined contribution pension plans, Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Volume 30, Issue 2006, Pages 843-877, with added details and background material in order to demonstrate the mathematical methods. In the investigation of the management of the investment portfolio, we only use one risky asset together with a bond and cash as other assets in a&nbsp / continuous time framework. The particular model is very much designed according to the members&rsquo / preference and then the funds are invested by the fund manager in the financial market. At the end, we are going to show various simulations of these models. Our methods include stochastic control for utility maximisation among others. The optimisation problem entails the optimal&nbsp / investment portfolio to maximise a certain power utility function. We use MATLAB and MAPLE programming languages to generate results in the form of graphs and tables</p>

Bakgrund: Det har tidigare konstaterats att det existerar ett samband mellan aktiers likviditet och dess avkastning. Bevis för detta har främst gått att finna på utländska aktiemarknader. På den svenska aktiemarknaden har tidigare utförda studier konstaterat att detta samband inte existerar. Vi vill därför göra en studie på den svenska aktiemarknaden, vilken delvis innefattar en ny tidsperiod för att se om någon likviditetspremie existerar. Syfte: Vårt syfte med denna studie var att undersöka om det är möjligt att uppnå en högre avkastning genom att investera i en portfölj med relativt sett illikvida aktier jämfört med en portfölj bestående av likvida aktier på Stockholmsbörsen samt undersöka om faktorerna likviditet, betavärde samt företagsstorlek signifikant påverkar portföljernas eventuella överavkastning jämfört mot ett lämpligt index. Metod: Vi har skapat tre olika portföljer, med tio aktier i varje vilka representerar de minst, mitterst och mest likvida aktierna enligt vårt valda likviditetsmått, aktieomsättningshastighet. Likviditetsmåttet laggar en månad för att kunna användas som investeringsstrategi. Vi har studerat portföljernas värdeutveckling under perioden september 2003 till december 2011 för att se om portföljernas olika likviditet påverkar avkastningen. Genom regressionsanalyser där aktieomsättningshastighet, betavärde samt storleken använts som oberoende variabler har vi försökt förklara portföljernas överavkastning mot AFGX. Resultat: Vi har kommit fram till att det inte existerar någon likviditetspremie på Stockholmsbörsen under vår valda undersökningsperiod. Det samma gäller under uppåt- respektive nedåtgående marknadstrend. Det enda fallet där en mer illikvid portfölj presterar bäst är under januari månad. / Background: Earlier studies have concluded that there is a connection between a stock’s liquidity and its yield. Proof of this connection has mainly been found on foreign stock exchanges. On the Swedish stock market, earlier studies have concluded that this connection may not exist. The authors therefore intend to do a liquidity study on the Swedish stock market on a partly new time period to see whether this liquidity premium exists or not. Aim: The aim with this study is to investigate if there is a possibility to achieve a higher yield by investing in a portfolio consisting of relatively illiquid stocks contrary a portfolio with highly liquid stocks. We also want to investigate if the factors: liquidity, beta value and company size have a significant impact on the portfolios possible excess return in relation to an appropriate index. Completion: In this study, the authors have constructed three different portfolios consisting of ten stocks, each which represent the least, middle, and highest liquid stocks according to our liquidity measure. This measure has a one-month lag to make it possible to use as an active investment strategy. The authors have studied the portfolios growth during the period September 2003 to December 2011 to investigate if the difference in liquidity has any impact on the return. Through regression analysis, where stock turnover ratio, beta value and company size has been used as independent variables, the study tries to explain the portfolios excess return over the AFGX index. Results: The study concludes that there is no significant liquidity premium during our chosen time period. The same conclusion is drawn on the sub-periods with both an up going and down going market trend. The only period during which an illiquid portfolio outperforms a liquid portfolio is during the month of January.

This study is to discuss the business investment strategy risk management model. The enterprise could identify, analysis the investment relative risks and establish the contingency strategy to management the risks in accordance with this model. This study selects the third generation digital mobile communication system to be the research objective. The business investment strategy risk management model could identify the investment strategy position of the industry value process in accordance with the value chain and cash flow. And the model could provide the framework and relationship of the relative risk variables through the risk variable system diagram. This model builds the scenarios of the industry and analyses different situations of the industry for forecasting the contingency strategy of the business. The contingency strategy is established for business implementing risk management of the high technology and high-risk investment. The 3G system is underling the high-level uncertainty status. The risk is increased by high license price, high infrastructure cost, technology development delay and none killer application etc. This study suggests the 3G Mobil communication company should implement the risk management actions for following items: ¡´The user ratio of 2005 ¡´The difference of 3G and 2.5G products¡C ¡´The competitive of system supplier capability. ¡´The supply chain of add-value service. ¡´Competitor status and strategy. ¡´Globe political and economic situation. This study suggests the business should implement the risk management model when it processing the high technology and high-risk investment. This model provides the risk identification, measuring, analysis, evaluation process and follow-up contingency strategy. The business could effectively manage the risk and ensure the competition by the model.

In this thesis, we propose an investment strategy for the world mutual funds. We first define the global trend indicator (GTI) for evaluating the price change trend of the funds in the future. Then, based on GTI, we derive the monitoring indicator (MI) to measure whether the fund market is in the bull or bear state. MI decides the buying or selling signal. The goodness of a fund is determined by some weighted combination of short-term performance and long-term performance. The weights of various performances are decided by the genetic algorithm, which can dynamically adjusted with priorities of interested funds according to their past performances (profitability). When a buying signal is triggered by MI, the funds with high performance are more likely to be picked than those with low performance. In our experimental results from January 1999 to December 2008 (10 years in total), we achieve the annual profit higher than 10%, which is a significant improvement to other existing methods.

<p>Background</p><p>Out of the different fund categories hedge funds have had the highest development in Sweden since 1994. Swedish investors’ interest in hedge funds doubled from 2005 to 2006. Hedge funds are said to be an investment with a low risk and not being dependent upon business cycle movements. Historically there have been high initial investments, most often over 100 000 SEK, required to invest in hedge funds. This has started to shift towards lower initial investments. This is a reason why hedge funds start to become interesting to private investors and not only to institutional, and wealthy private investors.</p><p>Purpose</p><p>The purpose of this thesis is to explore what different investment strategies and sub strategies that are used within Swedish hedge funds. Also specific risks and risk measurements, depending on investment strategy, will be investigated and compared.</p><p>Method</p><p>In order to meet the purpose of this thesis a qualitative approach has been used. A questionnaire, with both closed and open-end questions, was sent to 13 hedge fund managers operating in the Swedish hedge fund market. Afterwards, four semi-structured interviews were conducted. Two of the interviewees are hedge fund managers who also answered the questionnaire. The others were with a person who is a hedge fund analyst and a person working at the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority (SFSA).</p><p>Conclusion</p><p>Out of the five different investment strategies investigated the two most widely used in Swedish hedge funds are funds of hedge funds and equity hedge. The sub strategies that are used within the Swedish hedge fund market are those with a focus on low risk. Within Swedish hedge funds there are some specific risks and risk measurements that are useful. Sharpe ratio is best used to compare similar funds. Standard deviation is useful to evaluate each specific hedge fund. How much leverage capital that can be used is decided by SFSA. Yet, the risks depend on the hedge fund manager rather than the investment strategy used. This, due to the fact that the hedge fund managers have an own interest in the hedge fund.</p>

Bakgrund: Effektiva marknadshypotesen innebär att det inte går att utnyttja systematiska avvikelser på marknaden. Trots det finns det etablerade investeringsstrategier som investerare använder sig av för att generera överavkastning. Syfte: Syftet med studien är att undersöka huruvida det går att generar överavkastning genom att investera i företag som uppvisar en låg eller hög EV/EBITDA-multipel. Variablerna bransch och risk kommer även att undersökas med utgångspunkt från den eventuella förekomsten av en investeringsstrategi som genererar överavkastning. Genomförande: Teori inom området har byggt upp en grundförståelse för problemet, empiri har sedan hämtats från de olika företagen för att få fram EV/EBITDA-multiplar till de ingående portföljerna i studien. Aktiekurser har även inhämtats för att bygga grunden till empirin. Resultatet har sedan jämförts med OMXSPI samt med den riskjusterade avkastningen. Resultat: Av resultatet framkommer att det går att utnyttja en investeringsstrategi där investering görs i låga EV/EBITDA-multiplar. Effekten är tydlig på hela Stockholmsbörsen, samt i två av de undersökta branscherna, sällanköpsvaror och tillverkningsindustrin. Det spelar ingen roll vilken riskpreferens investeraren har då portföljer med låga multiplar genererar högst avkastning och även innehåller lägst betavärde. / Background: The efficient market hypothesis alleges that an investor cannot systematically earn excess return. However there are established investment strategies that are being used in the stock market to obtain this excess return Aim: The aim of the thesis is to examine if it is possible to earn excess returns by investing in companies that indicate a low or high EV/EBITDA multiple. The variables industry and risk will also be examined with the possible presence of an investment strategy where excess return can be obtained as a base. Completion: Theory within the field has built an understanding of the problem, empirics have then been gathered to obtain EV/EBITDA multiples and stock prices to perform the study. Portfolios of high and low multiples have been composed to analyze the result. The result has been compared to the development of the OMXSPI index and to the risk adjusted return for the portfolios. Result: The result shows that an investment strategy where investments are made in a low EV/EBITDA-multiple can be used to earn excess return on the Swedish stock market. The effect is most present at the Stockholm stock exchange and in the manufacturing industry and industry for durable goods. The investors risk aversion does not affect the decision, thus low multiples generate the highest return with the lowest beta value.

Bakgrund: Fonder är en sparform som har utvecklats och blivit en av de mest populära och framgångsrika placeringsformerna på marknaden. Många företag väljer därför, efter en högkonjunktur följd av möjlighet till reservsparande, att investera på fondmarknaden för att kunna öka sitt kapital under kommande lågkonjunktur. Att välja en stor och trögrörlig eller en liten och snabbfotat fond kan vara av avgörande karaktär när man ska se till utvecklingen. Problemformulering: Har fondstorleken betydelse vid placering i fonder under lågkonjunktur? Syfte: Klargöra huruvida fondstorleken har betydelse för avkastningen vid placering i svenska aktiefonder under lågkonjunktur. Metod: Studien använder sig av metodtriangulering där ett kvantitativt upplägg kombineras med ett kvalitativt inslag i form av en intervju. En deduktiv ansats anammas. Urvalet har valts ut genom ett bekvämlighetsurval och datainsamling har skett i form av sekundärdata från Morningstar, Riksbanken samt Affärsvärlden. Med den informationen har uppsatsens empiri och resultat grundlagts och kunnat kopplas till teorier, tidigare forskning samt allmän uppfattning om fonder i analysen. Slutsats: Undersökningen visar att stora fonder, tätt följt av medelstora fonder, är den bästa investeringen under lågkonjunktur. Små fonder är mer snabbrörliga, har en högre standardavvikelse och risk men det innebär inte generellt att det utmynnar i en högre avkastning. / Background: Fund saving is nowadays a very popular investment strategy when it comes to putting money aside on the market. After a big economic boom, with the potential of gathering up assets, companies choose  to invest in the fund market with the possibility to increase their wealth when a recession is up and coming. When it comes to how well the fund is developing, one needs to make a critical decision and choose either a big and sluggish one or a small and swift-footed one. Problem formulation: Does fund size matter when investing in funds during recession? Purpose: Determine whether fund size has an impact on return rate when investing in Swedish mutual funds during recession. Method: Different types of methods will be used throughout the study to ensure good quality and enough quantity. Mainly quantitative layout (data gathering from the Swedish State Bank, Morningstar and Affärsvärlden) featuring a qualitative interview and a deductive approach. With established empirics and elicited results, the study has been able to connect the theories used, the previous research in the field and the common view of funds among society to its analysis. Conclusion: Theory suggests that large funds, closely followed by mediumsized funds are the best investment during recessions. Small funds are more fastmoving, has a higher standard deviation and risk but it does not, generally, out-flow into a higher return.

<p>Essentially this project report is a discussion of mathematical modelling in pension funds, presenting sections from Cairns, A.J.D., Blake, D., Dowd, K., Stochastic lifestyling: Optimal dynamic asset allocation for defined contribution pension plans, Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Volume 30, Issue 2006, Pages 843-877, with added details and background material in order to demonstrate the mathematical methods. In the investigation of the management of the investment portfolio, we only use one risky asset together with a bond and cash as other assets in a&nbsp / continuous time framework. The particular model is very much designed according to the members&rsquo / preference and then the funds are invested by the fund manager in the financial market. At the end, we are going to show various simulations of these models. Our methods include stochastic control for utility maximisation among others. The optimisation problem entails the optimal&nbsp / investment portfolio to maximise a certain power utility function. We use MATLAB and MAPLE programming languages to generate results in the form of graphs and tables</p>