Bitcoin is an asset that demonstrated a high increase in price since it was launched in 2009, meanwhile it has been a very volatile and risky asset. Previous research has indicated that an allocation of bitcoin in investor’s portfolio could increase return as well as risk adjusted return. Furthermore, bitcoin has been observed to be uncorrelated to many markets; creating diversification opportunities and in some instances acted as a hedge against various stock markets. Due to the similarities between bitcoin and gold they have often been compared as alternative investment assets. Therefore, it is of interest for investors to understand if bitcoin could be included into a stock-portfolio in the Swedish market to increase risk adjusted returns and if bitcoin is a better alternative investment, than gold. Furthermore, if bitcoin could be used as hedge against the Swedish stock market. Three different portfolios with bitcoin were created, 1% bitcoin, 4% bitcoin and 8% bitcoin, the rest of the portfolio constitutes of Stockholm gross-index (OMXSGI). The portfolios are compared to OMXSGI and similar portfolios involving gold and OMXSGI. The portfolios are created for four different periods: 2011- 2021, 2016-2021, the bear market during the pandemic and the year 2020. Results reveals that during normal market behavior an 8% allocation of bitcoin and OMXSGI generates the highest Sharpe ratio. Also, that a small allocation of bitcoin can generate higher returns to lower risk then OMXSGI. During normal market behavior portfolio with bitcoin performs higher returns and Sharp ratio than portfolios with gold but to a higher risk. Additionally, bitcoin is not correlated to the Swedish market and implies that it possibly may be used as a hedge during normal market behavior. During the corona bear market bitcoin has a high correlation to OMXSGI and has a similar negative return but to a higher volatility. Meanwhile gold act as a safe haven during turbulent market behavior. To conclude during normal market times bitcoin creates opportunities for investors to include bitcoin to the portfolio. High allocations of 8% bitcoin might be too much risk for risk averse investors. During the corona bear market bitcoin portfolios generates worse returns to a higher risk and gold is a better asset to hold. Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies are assets which have some unique risks that cannot be measured by the Sharp ratio. Thus limit the results and analysis of the study.

Titel: Svenska småbolagsfonders prestation i förhållande till OMXSGI   Nivå: Examensarbete på grundnivå (kandidatexamen) i ämnet företagsekonomi     Författare: Pontus Fogelberg   Handledare: Alice Schmuck   Datum: 2023 – januari   Syfte: Svenska aktiemarknaden är sällsynt som studieobjekt. Då andra marknader skiljer sig från den svenska behöver den granskas ytterligare för att investerare ska ha goda förutsättningar. Syftet är att undersöka förutsättningar för överprestation mot den svenska marknaden genom att investera i svenska småbolagsfonder. Syftet uppfylls genom att följande frågeställning besvaras: Hur ser möjligheterna ut för att över en femårsperiod, respektive treårsperiod, generera en högre avkastning om man investerar i svenska småbolagsfonder jämfört med hela stockholmsbörsen?   Metod: Genom en kvantitativ ansats har sekundärdata i form av avkastning från fonder och OMXSGI under perioden 2007–2022 legat till grund för t-tester.   Resultat och slutsats: Resultatet visar på hög sannolikhet att svenska småbolagsfonder genererar en högre avkastning än OMXSGI under en period på tre respektive fem år. Studien visar även på att risken i form av standardavvikelse är högre hos fonderna, men att den risken blir mindre relevant vid längre tidsperioder.   Examensarbetets bidrag: Studien bidrar med kunskap om hur investerare på den svenska marknaden kan få en högre avkastning än genomsnittet.   Förslag till fortsatt forskning: Utifrån studiens resultat och begränsningar kan vidare studier göras för att se om svenska småbolagsfonders riskjusterade avkastning är högre än OMXSGI. Om så är fallet kan prissättningsmodeller undersökas för att bidra till att besvara om svenska marknaden är effektiv eller ej.   Nyckelord: Småbolagsfonder, OMXSGI, avkastning, effektiva marknadshypotesen, småbolagseffekt. / Title: Swedish small cap funds' performance in relation to OMXSGI   Level: Student thesis, final assignment for Bachelor Degree in Business Administration.   Author: Pontus Fogelberg   Supervisor: Alice Schmuck   Date: 2023 – January    Aim: The Swedish stock market is rarely an object of study. As other markets differ from the Swedish one, it needs to be examined further so that investors have good conditions. The purpose is to investigate the conditions for outperformance against the Swedish market by investing in Swedish small cap funds. The purpose is fulfilled by answering the following question: What do the possibilities look like over a five-year period, or a three-year period, to generate a higher return if one invests in Swedish small cap funds compared to the entire Stockholm stock exchange?   Method: Through a quantitative approach, secondary data in the form of returns from funds and OMXSGI during the period 2007–2022 have been the basis for t-tests.   Results and conclusions: The result shows a high probability that Swedish small cap funds generate a higher return than OMXSGI over a period of three and five years respectively. The study also shows that the risk in the form of standard deviation is higher with the funds, but that this risk becomes less relevant over longer periods of time.   Contribution of the thesis: The study contributes knowledge about how investors in the Swedish market can get a higher than average return.   Suggestions for future research: Based on the study's results and limitations, further studies can be done to see if the risk-adjusted return of Swedish small cap funds is higher than OMXSGI. If this is the case, pricing models can be examined to help answer whether the Swedish market is efficient or not.   Key words: Small cap funds, OMXSGI, return, efficient market hypothesis, size effect.

Background: As the goal of most investors is to generate excess returns as compared tothe broad market, different investment strategies to perform such a feat have been studied thoroughly for decades. One strategy which has performed particularly well is the value investment strategy, where securities that appear cheap relative to some of their fundamental values are invested in. More recently, the growth investment strategy, where securities are instead bought if some of their fundamental values are expected to rise rapidly in the future, has caught more attention from investors. As the efficient market hypothesis suggests that no investment strategy should be able to consistently generate excess returns without any luck involved, it is of interest to examine whether the aforementioned strategies act in congruence with the hypothesis. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to analyze if the value and growth investment strategies generate superior returns as well as risk-adjusted excess returns when compared to the Swedish stock market. The study also aims to analyze how the performance of the strategies varies during periods of different market sentiments. Methodology: This study used a quantitative method in its data collection and was conducted using a deductive approach. Six synthetic portfolios were created to test the strategies’ performance. The stocks which constituted the synthetic portfolios were chosen based on their P/E and P/B values from the Refinitiv Eikon platform, and the portfolios were rebalanced annually over the entire analyzed time period. The Swedish All-Share index, OMXSGI, was used as a proxy for the market portfolio. Conclusion: Based on the results of the study, the growth portfolios, more so than the value portfolios, were found to generate greater statistically significant returns as compared to the broad market during the analyzed time period. Although not all portfolios generated excess returns, the study may still add to the evidence that disproves the efficient market hypothesis.

Today fund matching is a natural part of Swedes finance and is a popular form of savings that includes a large number of investors in the Swedish fund market. This in turn generates an increased interest in how portfolio managers should locate and acquire knowledge in portfolio selection. This gives a greater interest in how different investment strategies can be affected and generate an investors wealth to an increased level within the stock market, which gives an increased focus to be able to generate as high risk-adjusted return as possible. The study partly presents traditional theory and background on modern portfolio theory and the efficient market hypothesis. Empirical studies also present within the financial market that demonstrate the differences of opinion between how actively versus passively managed funds have performed and which investment strategy is most beneficial for investment.  The purpose of the study is to compare realized return on active versus passive funds during long term, short term and specific time periods that had a lot of economic fluctuations, like bear markets. Within the study 10 actively managed funds and two index measures are selected to be studied and compared based on their respective performance, both within its rise and fall in the Swedish fund market. The performance measures will then be applied to be able to produce the results of the study and to be able to answer whether the active fund’s have any statistically significant over- and underperformance. After conducting single index models and t-test on the 10 active funds, the result of the study shows that despite using two benchmarks index, ten different active funds, long time period, short time period or specific time periods defined by market imbalance , we still resulted in many P-values that was not statistically significant. Active funds failed to overperform against passive funds, but passive funds also failed to outperform our selection of active funds.