Made available in DSpace on 2015-12-03T18:33:06Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Jose_Raymundo_de_Faria_Junior.pdf: 1267452 bytes, checksum: 6a478b16fd990211249d441f2100f6b4 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-02-18 / The objective of this research is to propose for high income Brazilian investors a model of dynamic allocation with international diversification that uses ETFs and the PMI manufacturing index. ETFs were selected from twelve countries, including the ETF equities in Brazil, EWZ. The portfolios were created with and without the EWZ and two procedures were adopted to weight the assets: (1) maximization of the Sharpe ratio and (2) allocation based on the proportion of GDP. An alternative method of selection of assets was presented, using the PMI manufacturing index as a decision filter for the allocation of the resources. The PMI is usually published on the first business day of each month, is researched in the major countries and is one of the first, if not the first, leading indicator of the economic cycle. When the PMI signaled economic growth, the portfolio consisted of a higher proportion of equities. To evaluate the performance of the proposed portfolio, it was compared to other three global portfolios that followed classical allocation strategies, and one of these was considered a benchmark. The proposed portfolio was also compared to a benchmark created exclusively with brazilian assets. The result suggests that the use of PMI as a decision filter in an active and internationally diversified portfolio using only foreign ETFs and weighted according to the techniques of Modern Portfolio Theory presented higher total return and Generalized Sharpe Ratio than the international and brazilian benchmarks. This result suggests that Brazilian and foreign investors and managers who adopt active management of their portfolios should include PMI as one of the indicators to be observed in the allocation strategy / O objetivo desta pesquisa ?? propor para os investidores brasileiros de alta renda um modelo de aloca????o din??mica com diversifica????o internacional que utiliza ETFs e o ??ndice PMI da manufatura. Foram selecionados ETFs de doze pa??ses, incluindo o ETF de renda vari??vel do Brasil, o EWZ. Foram criadas carteiras com e sem o EWZ e adotados dois procedimentos para ponderar os ativos: (1) maximiza????o do ??ndice de Sharpe e (2) aloca????o com base na propor????o do PIB. Foi apresentado um m??todo alternativo de sele????o de ativos, utilizando o ??ndice PMI da manufatura como filtro de decis??o para a aloca????o dos recursos. O PMI ?? divulgado, em geral, no primeiro dia ??til de cada m??s, ?? pesquisado nos principais pa??ses e ?? um dos primeiros, se n??o o primeiro, indicador antecedente do ciclo econ??mico. Quando o PMI sinalizou crescimento econ??mico, a carteira foi composta por maior propor????o de ativos de renda vari??vel. Para avalia????o da performance da carteira proposta, a mesma foi comparada a outras tr??s carteiras globais que seguiram estrat??gias cl??ssicas de aloca????o, sendo que uma destas foi considerada benchmark. A carteira proposta tamb??m foi comparada a um benchmark criado com ativos exclusivamente brasileiros. O resultado obtido sugere que o uso do PMI como filtro de decis??o em uma carteira ativa e diversificada internacionalmente usando somente ETFs estrangeiros e ponderados de acordo com as t??cnicas da Moderna Teoria de Portf??lio apresentou retorno total e ??ndice de Sharpe generalizado superiores ao benchmark internacional e ao benchmark brasileiro. Este resultado sugere que os investidores e os gestores brasileiros e estrangeiros que adotam a gest??o ativa de seus portf??lios poderiam incluir o PMI como um dos indicadores a serem observados na estrat??gia de aloca????o

本文旨在探討台灣發行交易所交易債券之可行性。台灣近年交易所交易基金發展蓬勃，無論掛牌檔數、資產規模、交易金額皆向上成長，惟根據中華民國證券商業同業公會的統計，台灣證券商受託買賣外國集中市場有價證券之規模亦逐年增加，顯示目前台灣金融交易市場所提供之金融商品並不足以滿足市場需求，仍有發展空間。2016年1月，台灣金融監督管理委員會開放國內證券商接受投資人委託買賣外國交易所交易債券，本文透過闡述交易所交易債券之產品特性及分析各國交易所交易債券之發行及上市規範和稅制，進一步為台灣發行交易所交易債券之相關政策給出具體建議。 / This study aims to make practical suggestions on exchange-traded note issuance in Taiwan. Data from Taiwan Securities Association shows that the trading value of securities firms accepting orders to trade foreign securities keeps growing these years, suggesting that the financial product line in Taiwan is not diversified enough to satisfy the market needs. Taiwan Financial Supervisory Commission has announced that securities firms are opened to accept orders to trade foreign exchange-traded notes since January 2016. Before opening domestic exchange-traded note market, related regulations have to be built. Exchange-traded note, the product itself, as well as the issuance and listing rules and taxation in different countries are therefore analyzed in this paper to make further suggestions on exchange-traded note issuance in Taiwan.

In two unrelated papers, we examine different aspects of mutual fund performance and other issues. In the first chapter, we look at exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and how they differ from index funds in performance and tracking error. Using daily data and a more comprehensive sample than past research, we find abnormal returns associated with the ETFs are higher than the alphas of the index funds in most cases. The results are much more prevalent in funds that follow the S&P 500 than funds that do not. When examining the tracking errors, we find index funds are able to track their indexes much better than ETFs and domestic ETFs are better than ETFs that track international indexes. In our most significant finding, we find that tracking error affects fund flow in the following period. While fund flows are generally increasing for both ETFs and index funds, funds that track their respective index better increase their net assets by a larger percentage than funds that track their index less well. In the second chapter, we look at the differences in performance and characteristics of mutual funds as they relate to the manager's gender. Using a larger sample and different techniques than have been used in the past, we find some differences in our matched comparison which suggest female managers have a lower risk tolerance than males. Females also tend to hold a higher number of assets (stocks) and fewer assets in their top 10 holdings than do male managers. In, pooled regressions, we find weak, but significant evidence that current female fund managers, when analyzed as a group, show slightly lower performance than male managers. We then analyze performance within funds over time. Our most consistent result is that when changing the composition of fund management, regardless of gender, the new management has significantly greater performance than prior management. We also find some evidence, although not conclusive, that the percentage of female managers managing a fund is negatively related to the fund's performance over time. Finally, we find the determinants of abnormal returns cannot be attributed to the fund manager's gender.

This study examines the use of leveraged exchange traded funds (LETFs) within a portfolio insurance framework to reduce exposure to downside risk. Investors have learned the importance of mitigating this risk having experienced two “once in a century” events in the last 20 years with the tech crash in the early 2000s and the financial crisis in 2008. Current portfolio insurance strategies are either option based (Leland & Rubinstein, 1976) or constant proportional portfolio insurance (CPPI), (Black & Jones, 1987). The cost of option based strategies can be quite high while a CPPI strategy requires constant rebalancing. This study combines the advantages of each by using LETFs to attain the leverage options provide, while at the same time allowing a greater percentage of the portfolio to be invested in bonds since a position in LETFs relative to a typical market index magnifies equity exposure. Thus, where a standard CPPI strategy may require 50% of the portfolio to be invested in equities, using a 3x LETF only requires approximately 16.7%. Results suggest the use of LETFs within a portfolio insurance framework result in better returns, higher Sharpe, Sortino, Omega, and cumulative prospect values while reducing Value at Risk (VaR) and Excess Shortfall below VaR. This twist on the use of LETFs will be of interest to any investor concerned with mitigating downside risk while allowing participation in increasing markets.

<p>This thesis is an empirical analysis on momentum effects on the Swedish stock exchange’s sector indicesduring the period 2001 to 2009. The momentum effect is investigated by buying previous winner andshort selling previous losers with holding and formation periods over an intermediate time period (1-12month period). Our results are not coherent with previous studies conducted on the U.S market or theworld market, instead our results indicate that the Swedish stock exchange’s sector indices experience acontrarian effect over the intermediate time period. The results are adjusted for systematic risk and aresignificant on the 5%-level. Our result show that the weak form of the efficient market hypothesis isviolated and we therefore believe that a demand exists for easy and convenient investment vehicles withsector specific exposure, which could have a positive effect on the efficiency of the market.</p>

This study investigates how risk management in general, and hedging in specific is used  in industries that produce and sell raw materials. We investigated the hedging strategies in the Swedish mining industry. We gathered data for this study from five interviews with CFO’s and Head of treasury’s from five different Swedish mining companies in order to get their  expertise and opinions of hedging. We found that companies only hedged their commodity prices if they were forced by circumstances outside of their control. We also found interesting similarities and differences between state-owned and publicly traded companies.

Börshandlade fonder (ETF:er) blir alltmer populära som spar- och investeringsalternativ. Antalet ETF:er och variationen av dessa ökar stadigt. Denna studie ser på ETF:er likställda aktier (ur ett värdepappersperspektiv) och syftar till att applicera momentumstrategier på den amerikanska ETF-marknaden, likt Jegadeesh och Titman (1993), för att testa sambandet mellan ETF:ers kapitalvärde och riskjusterad överavkastning, estimerat genom Jensens alfa. Med utgångspunkt från Banz (1981) som visar på samband mellan investeringar i småbolagsaktier och högre riskjusterad avkastning (än motsvarande investeringar i stora bolags aktier). Testet har baserats på portföljer sammansatta på momentum- och contrarianstrategier för att utröna om en ETFs storlek på kapitalvärde är avgörande för en ETFs avkastning. Populationen har delats upp efter kapitalvärde i grupper om 25% största respektive 25% minsta, varefter portföljer skapats med momentumvinnare och momentumförlorare inom respektive grupp. Resultaten är mångtydiga och är i en del fall i linje med forskning som stödjer teorier om sambandet mellan lågt kapitalvärde och hög riskjusterad överavkastning. I andra fall är resultatet motsatt. Dock ger de flesta observationer inte statistisk signifikans och sambandet kan därför inte styrkas statistiskt. Resultatet tyder snarare på att ett samband mellan dessa två variabler inte föreligger.

This thesis is an empirical analysis on momentum effects on the Swedish stock exchange’s sector indicesduring the period 2001 to 2009. The momentum effect is investigated by buying previous winner andshort selling previous losers with holding and formation periods over an intermediate time period (1-12month period). Our results are not coherent with previous studies conducted on the U.S market or theworld market, instead our results indicate that the Swedish stock exchange’s sector indices experience acontrarian effect over the intermediate time period. The results are adjusted for systematic risk and aresignificant on the 5%-level. Our result show that the weak form of the efficient market hypothesis isviolated and we therefore believe that a demand exists for easy and convenient investment vehicles withsector specific exposure, which could have a positive effect on the efficiency of the market.

Between 1993 and 2016, the U.S. exchange traded fund (ETF) market has proliferated from one product worth $6.5 million USD to 1,455 products worth over $2 trillion USD. Despite its dramatic growth, the ETF market has yet to be the subject of sociological inquiry even though fields such as the social studies of finance have begun examining the origins of index derivatives (Millo 2007), options (MacKenzie 2006), hedge funds (Hardie and MacKenzie 2007), and foreign exchange markets (Knorr Cetina and Bruegger 2002). Thus, the purpose of this dissertation is to provide the first historical sociology of ETF innovation in the United States, using an approach inspired by the social studies of finance. This project empirically traces the emergence of the ETF by compiling an account of precursory strategies, concept development, regulatory negotiations, and early product marketing. The concept of agencement is used to frame the historical narrative of the ETF as a product of two distinct assemblages that formed in the U.S. between 1970 and 2000: first, the socio-technical integration between humans and their technologies that affected trading strategies, and second, the collaborative relationships that were formed between innovators and regulators. The mixed qualitative research consists of 36 interviews triangulated with archival records, documents sourced through Freedom of Information Act requests, private collections, and government files. Concluding analysis suggests that strategies foreshadowing the ETF began to emerge as early as the 1970s, and innovator-regulator collaborations were integral to early product qualification - a process not yet explored in literature on financial regulation.

In chapter 1, we examine the nature and scale of the relationship between returns on sector Equity Traded Funds (ETFs) and their volatility. We discuss the source and direction of the effect between returns and risk and whether behavioral biases are prominent among sector ETFs. The study has implications for financial sector practitioners and investors, as it provides more information about the risk in sector ETF and whether that risk differs from that of other investment instruments. To this end, we test three hypotheses based on the relevant literature on volatility and returns: the leverage effect hypothesis, feedback hypothesis, and behavioral biases in assets pricing. We employ two measures of volatility in this chapter; specifically, we use the GARCH (1, 1) model and the Range-based autoregressive model. Chapter 2 presents an examination of the factors that affect payout policy in a frontier market. MSCI classifies the Saudi stock exchange as a large frontier market and proposes to be reclassified as an emerging market by next year. The Saudi market is characterized by the high governmental influence and dominance of individual traders on daily transactions. By studying the 12-year panel data, we assess the effect government, board characteristics, social norms and major shareholder on Saudi firms’ decision to distribute dividends. The government presence and investor taste, especially for Islamic-compliant firms, are discussed. This chapter provides valuable information for investors and practitioners by identifying the factors that should be considered when making finance and investment decisions in frontier markets.