Hedge funds have the past few years become an increasingly popular investment alternative and in the last decade hedge fund assets managed have quadrupled to USD 2000 billion, a growth rate of around 25-30% per year. One explanation for this substantial increase is that hedge funds' minimum limits on capital invested has declined, which have made ??them available to retail investors. The recent turmoil in financial markets has also contributed to investors finding their way to hedge funds, whose goal is to generate stable returns regardless of how the market develops.Using Sharpe?s, Treynor?s and Jensen's performance measures, I have investigated whether hedge funds manage to generate higher risk-adjusted returns than traditional managed funds.

ABSTRACTTITLE The investors guide to hedge fund strategies ? A comparing study of hedge fund strategies on the Swedish market.COURSE Bachelor Thesis in Finance KEYWORDS Hedge funds, Hedge fund strategies, Swedish hedge fund market, Investors, Average return, Riskadjusted returnThe ThesisInvestor?s general knowledge about hedge funds and hedge fund strategies, is compared to other investment alternatives low. The purpose of this thesis is therefore to clarify to investors how examined hedge fund strategies separate concerning risk and return in hedge funds. This, in order to facilitate for investors understanding which hedge fund strategy will be more suitable for them. To achieve this, the thesis is mainly focusing on quantitative data, which is complemented with qualitative findings in terms of a questionnaire.

In this thesis, the Swedish venture capital market and its profitability is analyzed. Venture capital is defined as capital that is invested in the early stages of a company's life cycle, in the two investment stages seed/start-up and expansion.A common view is that the profitability of Swedish venture capital has not been, is not and will probably not become high either. With this in mind, we try to answer to the following questions in this thesis:? What has the profitability of Swedish venture capital actually been historically?? Which reasons could be found in order to explain the historical returns for Swedish venture capital, and which factors has been identified in international comparative studies between venture capital markets?In order to answer these questions, data showing historical returns for the Swedish, European and American venture capital market has been gathered, an extensive literature study has been performed, and three interviews with participants from the Swedish venture capital market has been conducted.We conclude that the historical returns of Swedish venture capital is in line with the general view that they have been low. We also see a trend where Swedish venture capital funds that are not specialized in one investment stage generate lower returns than more specialized funds.

Aim: Based on portfolio theory, which highlights diversification, and CSR, which describes the value of social and ethical responsibility of corporations, this study examines whether there is a difference in risk-adjusted performance between ethical and traditional mutual funds. Ethical funds are limited in their opportunities of diversification and should therefore be limited in their potential perfomance. On the other hand, a focus on social and ethical responsibility can be profitable.Method: The study uses a quantitative approach where we used 25 mutual fund in each category, ethical and conventional mutual funds. The mutual funds and their data has been obtained from www.morningstar.se and www.pensionmyndigheten.se. Historical performance between 2009-2013 were processed to obtain the Sharpe ratio and M2.

Syftet med uppsatsen är att med hjälp av händelsestudiemetodik undersöka om förändringar av The Federal Funds Rate ger avvikande avkastning på Stockholmsbörsen. Teorin utgörs av den effektiva marknadshypotesen, där vi utgår från den semistarka formen av marknadseffektivitet, aktiers räntekänslighet samt investerares beteende vid makroekonomiska nyheter. Undersökningen visar att det finns avvikande avkastning på Stockholmsbörsen vid förändringar av The Federal Funds Rate. Resultatet varierar dock mellan A- och O-listan..

Stock lending is primarily a professional activity. The supply of stocks in the lending market comes mainly from pension funds and insurance companies, while intermediaries provide valuable services by taking positions as borrowers as well as lenders. Borrowers use stock lending for various reasons. For instance, hedge funds usually borrow stocks to cover a short position. There has been a lot of controversy in the stock lending industry and the debate has mainly concerned its effects for the stock markets.

Stock lending is primarily a professional activity. The supply of stocks in the lending market comes mainly from pension funds and insurance companies, while intermediaries provide valuable services by taking positions as borrowers as well as lenders. Borrowers use stock lending for various reasons. For instance, hedge funds usually borrow stocks to cover a short position. There has been a lot of controversy in the stock lending industry and the debate has mainly concerned its effects for the stock markets.

The process of European Integration and creation of the single market revealed many questions and boundaries on the development and improvement of the European Social Policy. Pension?s sustainability has become the priority issue especially during the EU enlargement processes. Different policy instruments and institutions available to governments of Member States in realization of social objectives resulted in a growing diversity of pension polices which produced different combinations of public and private provisions - ?private-public hybrids? , with the state exercising different degrees of influence in their development.

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..

Purpose:        The intention of this study is to distinguish if there is a correlation between mutual funds administration fee and their return. The study will also observe if there is a difference regarding the return between active and passive management fees.Method:        The study is founded on a deductive approach because the study is based on existing theories. Quantitative research based on statistical data has been used. A correlation analysis has been applied to determine if there is a correlation between the chosen variables.Conclusion:   The conclusion of the study is that active management of funds mainly do not give a higher return than passive management funds. Neither is the administration fee dependent on the risk a fund has..

Introduction: In 1998, the pension system was changed and the so called PPM system was introduced. The PPM system is partly fund-based, partly distribution-based. There are approximately 700 different investment funds to choose between, at a maximum five for each individual. For persons who are not familiar with the financial market, the choice might be difficult. The lions? part of the investors do not seem to have an active strategy.

Introduction: Increased savings in funds has enforced the importance of the institutions. During the last 25 years they have augmented their ownership from 20 to 85 % of the Swedish stock exchange. Thereby the ownership becomes more and more financial, meaning that the return is the most crucial. In an article in Dagens Nyheter the president of the Swedish Shareholders Association and the president of Metall object to the institutional passivity which they consider being an important problem. Purpose: The purpose of this essay is to put the institutional passivity in perspective.

Trenden i samhället idag är att det tillbringas kortare tid i arbetslivet samtidigt som det finns ett hot om en framtida arbetskraftsbrist. Syftet med studien var att undersöka faktorer som är av betydelse för äldre medarbetares beslut om tidpunkt för pensionering. Variablerna krav, kontroll, stöd, ekonomisk situation, hälsa och attityd till pension undersöktes genom ett frågeformulär. 117 assistenter i Örebro kommun deltog i undersökningen. Resultatet visade att attityd till pension hade ett negativt samband med hälsa, civilstånd samt ålder.

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..

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.