We have in this essay studied the Swedish Hedge Fund Market available for the average Swedish private investor. We have closely looked at the risk measurements that are applicable on the evaluation of Hedge Funds today, and furthermore studied how they are communicated and what they actually contribute with in terms of risk and yield. Our survey attempts to clarify the shortcomings in the communication between the Hedge Fund Managers and their smaller investors. Do they really know where they put their money? The market is rapidly expanding and our goal was to find improved ways to inform about the Hedge Funds risks and opportunities.

The purpose of the thesis has been to explore the use of hedge Fund styles when constructing portfolios of hedge Funds (i.e. Funds of hedge Funds). The central question is if the use of hedge Fund styles can significantly explain and improve risk adjusted returns (characterized by Sharpe ratios). The study has been done in collaboration with Optimized Portfolio Management AB who desire further knowledge and evaluation of hedge Fund styles for their Fund of hedge Funds.To be able to create successful ex ante portfolios we have explored various prediction models for both risk and return. Our findings indicate that return prediction is problematic using simple models such as regression since the risk exposure of the indices appear to change significantly over time.

Background: Mutual Funds have become an important part of the Swedish deposit market. Savings in mutual Funds add up to almost 20 percent of the households'assets. When the pension reform is carried out all employees are going to have savings both in mutual and bond Funds. But only if the Fund overperforms the market it is worth investing. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explore if Swedish mutual Funds have generated higher returns than market portfolio in the late nineties.

This study analyzes 66 Swedish actively managed mutual Funds investing in the Swedish stock market during the period 2005-2014. The purpose is through pooled data regressions analyze the relationship between both the mutual Fund?s annual fee and risk-adjusted return to the Fund?s characteristics. The characteristics of the study are the size of the Fund's assets, age, if the Fund is bank managed or not, Tracking Error, and standard deviation of return.By using the performance measures of CAPM, Fama and French 3-factor model, and Carhart?s 4-factor model monthly risk-adjusted returns are created for all Funds over the period.

Aim: The aim of this study is to do a comparative study between Swedish Ethical equity Funds with Swedish traditional equity Funds in terms of return, risk and risk-adjusted return.Theory: Sharpe ratio and Modigliani-Modigliani.Method: The essay will be based on a quantitative research method in which secondary data is the basis for the calculations. A statistical analysis was applied.Conclusion: The study concludes that there is no significant difference between the ethical Fund group and the traditional Fund group in terms of return, risk and risk-adjusted returns. The traditional Fund group was those who had the best returns but only by small margins..

Purpose: Aims of this paper is to evaluate a comparative study between China and Russia Funds in respect of the risks and returns. We also want to examine what has affected the Funds in their respective domestic stock market.                                                            Method: The study is based on qualitative methodology to complement the quantitative survey by first gathering of secondary data from Morningstar, and Fund manager´s stories on Fund and banking companies' websites.  Primary data is conducted by the interview with Fund manager. The sample consists of all land Funds for China and Russia has found more than 10 years on the stock market.Results and Conclusion: The survey shows that China Funds will generate better in decline than Russia Funds in both return and risk-adjusted Sharpe ratio. Because the China Funds had better risk diversification and its holdings spread across different industry area while Russia Funds is more directed towards oil and gas industry.

This paper includes astudy of the mutual Fund market investors during a selected timeperiod. The reader is given a descriptive picture of how people in different age groups have  acted  in  conjunction  with  the  last  major  financial  crisis.  It  has  been  studied whether people in the different age categories have saved,purchased or sold during this time  period  based  on  theories  and  analytic  material  from  one  of  the  largest  Fund operators in Sweden. The result enlightens people?s activity and risk appetite in relation to the Fund market. The essay results in an explanation of the underlying cause of the behavior        of         the         people         in         the         different         age         categories.The paper assumes that the market is cyclical and that more crises will occur in the future.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine whether hedge Funds generate higher risk-adjusted returns than traditional managed Funds in Sweden.Methodology: This study was based on quantitative data about the Funds historical returns. The Funds historical returns were taken from the database Morningstar and the risk-free rate from the Swedish central bank. Random samples of 36 Funds have been divided into three portfolios in the form of a hedge Fund portfolio, stock portfolio and mix Fund portfolio.Result & Conclusion: The study concluded that the stock portfolio has shown the highest average yield for the study period where all portfolios below market index. Hedge Fund portfolio has achieved the highest risk-adjusted return calculated by the portfolios Sharpe Ratio. Of all hedge strategies, arbitrage had the highest average return and risk-adjusted returns..

 Problem: For what type of investors are index Funds versus exchange-traded index Funds best suited?Objective: The purpose of the paper is to determine how an index Fund or an exchange-traded index Fund (ETF) suits different types of investors with different requirements in terms of time frame, investment size and purpose of investment. The comparison is based on fees and trade practicality. This is going to describe the advantages and disadvantages with the two different financial instruments.Method: The study is a comparative study using two methods; one of which is a case study, the other is a qualitative interview. The case study focuses on fees and is made on an exchange traded Fund (XACT OMXS30) and a simple equity index Fund (Erik Pensér equity enhanced index).

In this paper Swedish hedge Funds and strategies are discussed and analysed. These new financial forms seem to draw recently a huge attention both in media, press and the academic world. The fact is that hedge Funds have existed already for a long time but it is still known too little about them. After the introduction of hedge Funds, different asset pricing models are discussed including the most basic of all ? CAPM and further Fama and French three factor model as well as the expanding model with conditioning approach.

The Swedish stock-market gives investors an opportunity to benefit from the global growth while financing companies invests and contributes to a socio-economic development. Parallel to the ownership of the Funds also follows a responsibility as companies in the Funds affect society and the environment. The growth of savings in Funds, combined with an increased focus on sustainability has developed SRI (socially responsible investment). Therefore it is interesting to examine whether responsibility is an exception, which only concerns SRI-Funds or a general principle, which includes the whole Swedish stock-market.The results of the survey makes it clear that all the Swedish major banks actively works to integrate sustainability within the respective bank's business to achieve a more sustainable financial system. Thus concludes the investigation that responsible investments are a general principle on the Swedish mutual stock-market.How responsibility is integrated in Fund management differ between the banks.

This paper examines what affects the demand for five Swedish ethical Funds between the years 1997-2007. The purpose of this study is to examine if there is a relation between Fund value and other values than just financial. This study examines if the number of conflicts in the world and the media?s coverage of the climate change debate could have an impact on the demand for ethical Fund. A multiple linear regression shows that we don?t have a significant result from the examined variables except for household wealth.

The main purpose of this Master Thesis has been to evaluate whether active Fund management is profitable on Emerging Markets. The material used to examine this consists of 106 actively managed Funds, with varying length during the period 1988-2006 and who uses MSCI Emerging Markets (MSCI EM) as benchmark index. The thesis has been written under the supervision of the Asset Management Department of Länsförsäkringar AB (LFAB) and the Department of Production Economics, Linköping Institute of Technology. Apart from the main purpose, the methodology used is also meant to form a template for in-depth or similar studies, preferably by the assigner of this survey, LFAB.The results shows that the median manager underperforms the MSCI EM throughout the whole period, which leads to the conclusion is that active management on Emerging Markets is not profitable. A grouping of the Funds based on tracking error still shows that a majority of the managers in all of the groups underperforms against the benchmark.

Nearly 74 percent of the Swedish population invests in Funds and the options are therefore various. The Swedish private investors can choose between active and passively managed Funds. Fund managers, who seek to generate higher returns than the market, manage active managed Funds. Unlike the active managed Funds, passively managed Funds do not require any active investment decisions.Fama?s (1970) efficient market theory reflects all available information in the stock price, therefore it is not possible to predict how the stock price changes.

The main purpose of the study is to investigate Sweden's four large banks, concerningrisk and return, to see if there are any differences between them. The paper will alsoinvestigate the following sub sections: are there any differences in how the banks havesucceeded in managing geographically targeted Funds and if there are any differencesin how Funds are performing according to the Fund size.The study is based on a quantitative method and has a deductive approach. Theselection consists of all of the four banks Swedish and Nordic Funds (according tomorningstar.se 's categories "Sverige" and "Norden"). The study is based on secondarydata gathered from sources such as Morningstar, Affärsvärlden, Dagens Industri andthe Swedish National Banks websites.Swedbank Robur has performed the highest results in the case of Swedish Funds.Handelsbanken has performed the highest results in the case of Nordic Funds and thetotal of all Funds that are in the study. Based on the results of the study it was possibleto distinguish a link between Fund size and the annual return. .