This thesis is focused on Managed Futures, which is one of alternative investment instruments. Even though its popularity in developed countries rises, it is a rarity in Czech financial market. The main intent is to clarify specifications, historical roots, legal framework and other characteristic aspects. Part of the work will be devoted to the analysis of performance, risk, correlation with other investments and the possibility of inclusion in a portfolio of experienced Czech investor.

The principal aim of the thesis is to describe the functioning of commodity markets, especially on the example of oil, to analyze the specifics of selected commodity companies, to determine the influence of these characteristics on the valuation of these selected commodities and to identify the possibility of usage of the methods for valuation of other commodity companies.

The thesis deals with identifying and quantifying the factors affecting the export of agricultural commodities to the neighboring states of the Czech Republic from 1993 to 2013. The theoretical part is described in detail international trade theory and econometric analysis. In the practical part they are declared elected variables and with the help of the econometric analysis using software Gretl are assessed different models for neighboring States, the Czech Republic and subsequently economic, statistical and econometric verified. Subsequently, these models are evaluated in terms of usability and the individual variables is described by their strength influence on exports of agricultural commodities to neighboring countries.

The thesis deals with current opportunities for investing in precious and industrial metals. The literature overview introduces the reader with the current knowledge about commodity investments and provides results of various authors dealing with factors important for commodity price develop and with relation of commodity prices and inflation. Trough metal markets analysis identifies key factors with impact on sup-ply, demand and price of specific metal. Based on historical prices explores the relationship of metal prices, relationship of metal prices and stock market and business cycle. Quantify risk, which the investor has to accept in the case of investing in metals by using Value at Risk methods. The risk is compared with the level of risk on stock market. The thesis summarises all these results and formulate investment recommendation.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine the use of commodity derivatives in the oil market. The thesis itself is divided into two main parts - theoretical and practical. The theoretical part is mainly focusing on the description of commodity derivatives in the oil market and the explanation of the mechanism of most often used derivative contracts. The second and more practical part of the thesis examine the use of these derivatives and all benefits and risks associated with trading in commodity derivatives. The potential threats arising from using derivatives as oil market contracts are explained on the example of corporate trading strategy of Matallgesellschaft AG.

Companies dependent on commodities for their production have to deal with volatile commodity prices and should employ measures for risk reduction as unfavourable spot price development may cause significant losses. A useful tool for diminishing the risk is hedging on futures market; however, this approach faces a crucial question of optimal hedge ratio determination (ratio between spot and futures units). Our thesis examines nine different ways of optimal hedge ratio estimation (naive, Sharpe, mean extended Gini coefficient, generalized semivariance, value at risk, and minimum variance through OLS, error correction, GARCH, and bivariate GARCH models) and evaluates their efficiency using the data on eight different commodities. The results differ across the respective commodities and cannot be generalized. Two conclusions resulting from the analysis refer to performance of naive and OLS hedge ratios and constant vs time varying hedge ratios. We find that complex hedge ratios, such as bivariate GARCH or VaR hedge ratios, do not outperform naive and OLS hedge ratios and that the results of constant hedge ratios are mostly as good as results of time-varying hedge ratios.

This diploma thesis is focused on evaluation of impact of oil price changes on share values of oil companies. The main goal was to clarify whether stocks of oil companies with state share react to oil price movements differently than stocks of oil companies without state share. This hypothesis was verified by analysis of time series of oil price (WTI) and share values of seven oil companies (BP, ExxonMobil, Lukoil, PetroChina, Statoil, Petrobras). One-day data from 2002-2016 period were used. Investment recommendation based on econometric methods (correlation analysis, regression analysis, VAR model, Granger causality) and financial methods (volatility, profitability) was drawn up in this study. The hypothesis of state influence was confirmed.

Diploma thesis studies the relationship between selected commodities and stock indexes. In the theoretical part of the thesis, there are described important stock indexes, their sector structure and the countries represented in each index. There is a detailed description of the analysed commodities, which are gold, crude oil and cocoa. The theoretical part focuses also on the historical development of prices of these commodities, important events with an impact on the development of prices, and factors influencing prices of commodities. There is also characterised the supply and demand for these commodities. Practical part of the thesis analyses the correlation between stock indexes and commodities and furthermore tests the relationship between stock markets and commodities with the statistical method of VAR model and Granger causality.

The purpose of this thesis is to analyze investment options into wheat, corn and rice futures throughout different time horizons. Mostly we use daily closing prices for the last fifteen years. General knowledge of the field in context of nowadays is required to perform such an analysis. To achieve our goals we use technical analysis, time series analysis and we discuss the fundaments of price movements. Contribution of this thesis can be summed as presenting the basic tools of technical analysis in real world, presenting the fundamentals of price movements in one place and practical application of time series analysis on futures prices. By doing so we can confirm that random walk thesis is not unsubstantial but cannot be generalized for all instruments and periods of capital market.

The subject of the thesis "Analysis of the profitability of a selected agricultural entity - ZD Strmilov" is the elaboration of a real analysis of the profitability of a functioning small agricultural enterprise. The diploma thesis is divided into two parts, the first of which is a theoretical part, which focuses on the general characteristics of a small business and its economic use,with an explanation of its establishment. The second, practical part, provides a realistic analysis of the profitability of an existing small farm with the production of agricultural commodities. In conclusion, the work is completed with supplements, which can contribute in the future to increasing the profitability of a small agricultural enterprise and its further development.