Hedge funds? importance within the financial system has during the most recent years increased dramatically. These special funds are unique instruments that differ from traditional mutual funds in a variety of ways, however especially in how they expect returns. Due to the fact that hedge funds are able to hold short positions they possess the possibility to become market neutral investment vehicles.Because of this possibility to sustain positions neutral to market fluctuations, the concept of absolute returns became a unique selling point for hedge fund managers and promises of stable returns unchallenged by market conditions was assured. This research paper aims to examine the theory of absolute returns in hedge funds by examining hedge funds from the Nordic region during the last years of economic turmoil that has occurred by  analyzing the results from their strategies, partially by quantitative measurements as well as qualitative.  The results show that none of hedge fund strategies managed to deliver absolute returns over the chosen period..

Title: Overreaction on the Swedish stock market Seminar date:2008-01-30 Course:Nek K01- Bachelor Thesis in Economics (15 ETCS) Authors: Advisor:Oskar Herbe and Ludvig Persson Hossein Asgharian Key Words:Overreaction, Anomalies, Market Efficiency, Contrarian investment strategies Purpose:The purpose of this thesis is to test if the overreaction hypothesis as originally described by De Bondt and Thaler is a good explanation model for the Swedish stock market. Further, our intension is to divide the stock market into three segments by company size, in terms of market capitalization, to control for size effects. Method:We have conducted this study by analyzing Swedish stock data in the period of 1989-2007. Within this time span, using overlapping formation periods, we have constructed two types of portfolios, winner portfolios and looser portfolios. The portfolios represent the 30 per cent best performing respectively worst performing stocks in terms of returns.

Rådande marknadssituation för lokaluthyrning är tuff. I konkurrensutsatta branscher är nöjda kunder en klar målsättning och ett måste för att överleva. Fastighetsbranschen har tidigare haft andra mål med sin verksamhet än kundnöjdhet, byggandet har varit i fokus och förvaltningsfrågorna har varit lågprioriterade.Idag är många fastighetsföretag på vägen mot att bli mer kundorienterade, det vill säga sätta kunden i fokus istället för fastigheten. Den kunddrivna fastighetsförvaltningen innebär att maximera värdet för sina hyresgäster. Genom ökade resurser på förvaltningen kan man skapa bättre relation med sina hyresgäster vilket medför många fördelar och på sikt kanske även en högre värderad fastighetsportfölj.

C-essay in political science by Dennis Callejas Gidlund, ht-14. Supervisor: FreddyKjellström.?Great minds think alike. An comparativa study of the Social Democrats and theModerates parties programme 1990-2013.?The purpose with the essay is to examine if the Social Democrats and the Moderates havegotten closer within labor market policies, education policies and also within the view ofmigration and integration.

The main focus of this essay is to analyze whether strict employment protection legislation has a negative effect on the labour market possibilities for youth in the EU or not. To empirically examine the labour market possibilities for youth, data for unemployment rates and incidence of temporary jobs are used. By doing simple correlations between the different labour market characteristics and OECD?s employment protection legislation index the effect of the latter is tested. The result is that a tendency for youth unemployment and frequency of youth with temporary employment to be higher when employment protection legislation is strict can be seen.

This master thesis covers the seasonal planning of a small scale hydropower system. The system in this study is owned and operated by Mälarenergi Vattenkraft AB. The total system consists of 4 different main rivers with 24 hydropower stations and several dams. The total installed power in the system is 43.75 MW. Most of the hydropower stations are regarded as small scale hydropower stations and thus entitled to green certificates.In this report the issue of planning is formulated as an optimization problem.

Title: The mortgage limitation and its impact on the mortgage marketLevel: Final assignment for Bachelor Degree in Business AdministrationAuthor: Mattias Arnkvist and Magnus Vitasp PerssonSupervisor: Lars SteinerDate: 2011 ? MayAim: We have conducted this report to find out what effect the mortgage limitation has had on the mortgage market since its introduction in autumn 2010. The mortgage limitation has both before and after the introduction been a topic of discussion as it affects many and above all makes it diffucult for certain customer groups.Method: This report was written by a qualitative method. The report uses qualitative and quantitative data. The quantitative data we have in the report are printed literature in books, articles and journals as well as data taken from Internet.

This essay reviews the situation for real estate agencies within the Stockholm area. In this essay we assume that costumer loyalty is a requirement for survival on the competitive estate market. Two actors have been compared; A well known national Internet-based agency, Skandia Mäklarna, and a smaller local traditional agent Mäklarfirman Grönberg. These actors have been analyzed up on theories on loyalty, relationship marketing, service marketing, quality and involvement .The conclusion of the essay is that it is possible for small estate agencies to compeed with larger Internet based agencies by building loyal relationships with their customers. This can be achieved if the right strategic decisions are made.

Silviculture in young stands in Sweden is below the mark concerning what has to be done in the forest, and it is time to solve the problem. The problem will not be solved only by the private forest owners, professional help is needed. Skogsägarna Mellanskog is one of four forest unions in Sweden who wants to play a role and take responsibility for forestry in the middle of Sweden. This academic essay is based on a market survey sent to 350 forest owners in the Örebro district. 186 of them answered the questions, giving a response frequence of 53 percentage. The purpose of the essay is to find the determining factors which will make a forest owner to find a collaborator when planning and carrying out the silviculture measures in young stands. The result of the survey shows that the forest owners are anxious about the price and the costs. The costs have a severe effect if the silviculture measures in young stands will be carried out or not.

The purpose of this thesis is to create a greater understanding of relationships and networks on regulated markets. This includes what the climate are like on such a market and how different aspects within relationships and networks are affected by regulations. By the use of a deductive approach, a qualitative study was performed. This was carried out by interviewing different actors on the Swedish market of alcoholicbeverages. The theoretical framework includes relationship quality, consisting of power and dependence, cooperation,adaptation and trust.

The background of this study stemmed from the notion that the majority of homeless women with substance abuse, most of all, wanted a secured place of their own to stay. Few involved professionals agreed and instead of perceiving housing as a human right the women were mostly offered various types of short-term social housing. The purpose of this study was thus to examine and analyze how professionals attached to the social services and public housing companies in Gothenburg explained that homeless women with substance abuse were excluded from accommodation on the open housing market. The qualitative approach included ten interviews with eleven professionals in Gothenburg. The theoretical framework consisted mainly of Bourdieu's analytical concepts of field, doxa as well as social, economic and cultural, alongside symbolic capital.

Internet has opened a whole new world when it comes to marketing. Because of this companies can reach out to a broader consumer audience. The idea to write this essay came to mind, when we were asked to design the website of a new registered company named Artoteket. The company?s purpose is to hire out and market art on the Internet to bigger companies such as banks, law firms and industrial company?s etc.

The shareholder is supposed to be indifferent if one share costs 100 SEK, or 10 shares cost 10 SEK each. In an efficient market, shares should be valued directly to new expectations as a result of the announcement of the reverse split. We investigate whether abnormal returns incur surrounding reverse split and if owner structure change.One reason for the reverse share split is that most companies have plans to imple-ment other company?s specific events in order to survive rather than to change the price range to a more attractive level. We found a negative return in the ex-day at 8,1 per cent.

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.

The globalization of today?s society has enabled consumers to acquire products and services from all over the world. Global organizations have the entire world as a playfield and offer products and services across markets. Regardless perception and transparency of the global market, consumers are still individuals. Consumers may have different perceptions and ideas about products, their functions and usage.