The purpose of the thesis is to demonstrate how high frequency trading affects the stock market. The growing high frequency trading is affecting the game plan on the financial markets and concerns have grown about the high frequency users intentions with their business. It is difficult to receive an overall picture of the subject because the lack of previous research and even the research that exist do not show the entire picture. The thesis contributes to the research through a comprehensive picture of the present debate as well as the previous research through a literature study. Our results showed that high frequency trading provides liquidity to the market, there is a statistical connection between high frequency trading and volatility, no price manipulation is being used and there is a need for a supervision of the high frequency trading..

Möbius sequence is a rare condition where affected cranial nervesoften lead to speech deviations due to reduced oral motor functioning. Thisstudy aimed to survey speech deviations, compensatory strategies and selfperceptionof speech in seven people with Möbius sequence, and to linkthese to oral motor function and intelligibility. Additionally, the immediateeffects of smile surgery were investigated in one person. The abovementioneddomains were studied instrumentally, perceptually and throughstructured interviewing. All participants displayed reduced oral motorfunction.

The purpose of this paper is to find out which portfolio theory one should use during a financial crisis. We will examine two different portfolio theorys, the Minimum Variance portfolio and the beta portfolio.We have chosen to study two different portfolios, and followed their development during the financial crisis with its start in 2008 and the IT bubble with its start in the middle of 2000.The data has been collected from OMX internet database making it quantitative study. The beta portfolio's objective is to follow the index and the Minumim Variance portfolio´s objective is to spread the risk by investing in stocks with low volatility. By following the two different portfolios, and compare the development to the index, we will be able to determine which theory is most suitable to use during a recession. The studyperiods we chose were both in a recession and it turned out that the most appropriate portfolio to use was the Minimum Variance portfolio because stock in this portfolio tends to be less sensitive to economic fluctuations..

Vattenfall hedge its future electricity production in order to decrease fluctuations in theresult. Hedging can in a simplified way be described as selling the future electricity deliveriesin long-term contracts so that the future price of the delivery becomes fixed. The contractsused are electricity forwards traded at the Nordic electricity market Nord Pool. Animbalance between buyers and sellers can lead to a situation where the forward price notequals the expected spot price. The difference between the forward price and the expectedspot price is referred to as the market risk premium.

According to the current regulations described in IAS 27 - Consolidated and Separate Financial Statements, an investment company is required to consolidate all entities that it controls. However, this thesis outlines the creation of a new system, where those entities are instead measured at fair value, taking changes in fair value into account in the income statement. By recalculating the consolidated accounts for five major investment companies in accordance with the new system, this investigation concludes that the new system would provide investors with more relevant but less reliable accounting information. In addition, the historical financial performance of Investor, Industrivärden, Ratos, Kinnevik, and Lundbergföretagen, is evaluated using their recalculated consolidated financial statements. The evaluation indicates that the overall volatility in the companies' consolidated financial statements would have been higher during the time period 2005-2009, in comparison to official reports..

This paper presents empirical evidence on the determinants of interest rate swap spreads in Sweden during the period 1999-2003. The results suggest that the spread between STIBOR and the general collateral repo rate is positively related to shorter maturity swap spreads. The risk premium associated with commercial bonds is positively related to swap spreads of all maturities. A negative relationship is observed between the term structure of interest rates and swap spreads. The short-term interest rate is positively related to spreads with shorter maturities.

The aim of this thesis is to investigate how a valuation of a company preceding an acquisition can be affected by the fact that a strong brand is attached to the target company. Techniques to value a company and theories of brands are well developed, but the link between them is partially missing even though the needs to value brands have increased. A case study of five Swedish acquisitions is conducted to identify possible complicating and simplifying factors and how these are handled in the context of a valuation of an acquired company with a strong brand. Important findings are that a decreased volatility of future earnings can lead to more accurate prognoses and valuations due to the existence of a strong brand. A strong brand can, on the other hand, also make the valuation of the target company more difficult due to the fact that it is a subjective asset which increases the overall risk of the company.

Increasing volatility and less political intervention from the CAP in the market price of wheat is making it more difficult than in the past for Swedish farmers to determine the price at which they should sell their wheat. In the past, the Swedish farmer-owned company Lantmännen has traditionally set a guideline price for Swedish wheat every year to which farmers could adapt, but ceased doing so last year. Therefore this study sought to identify the parameters on which the price of wheat is dependent on by using a reduced form model. The perspective adopted was that of farmers. The model proved able to identify the main factors determining the annual price fluctuations in wheat, with all variables included having an impact on the wheat price, except export quantity in the previous year.

I denna uppsats diskuteras sambandet mellan risk, marknadseffektivitet och volatilitet. En studie görs för att se om volatiliteten (kursrörligheten) har ökat i enskilda aktier under tidsperioden 1988-1999. Vidare behandlas vilka faktorer som kan ge upphov till volatilitetsförändringar, vilka konsekvenser en förändrad volatilitet får för olika typer av investerare samt om utvecklingen är förenlig med EMH (den effektiva marknadshypotesen).Studier av volatilitet är intressanta p g a den risk som uppstår för olika marknadsaktörer vid en ökad volatilitet. Uppstår felvärderingar på aktiemarknaden finns även risk för att kapital fördelas på ett sätt som inte är optimalt. I stora drag kan man definiera begreppet volatilitet som ett mått på hur stor osäkerheten är inför den framtida kursutvecklingen för en aktie.

This thesis describes how large Swedish companies finance their debt and identifies some factors that affect their decisions. The study is based on 10 well-known companies of which 9 are listed on Nasdaq OMX Nordic. The results show that the companies display several similarities concerning their debt structure and the factors which their choices are based upon. All companies in this study primarily use corporate bonds for their long-term borrowing, commercial papers for the short-term borrowing, and bank-facilities as back-up. There is a tendency that smaller companies in larger extent use bank-loans for long-term borrowing due to larger emissions costs when using market financing.

Syftet med denna uppsats a?r att underso?ka Bitcoins egenskaper och funktioner samt diskutera dess eventuella pa?verkan pa? dagens ekonomiska system. Den forskning som publicerats pa? a?mnet underso?ker fra?mst tekniska och sa?kerhetsma?ssiga detaljer, det a?r da?rfo?r intressant att analysera ur en ekonomisk synvinkel. Genom att anva?nda makroekonomisk teori ska jag fo?rso?ka klargo?ra om Bitcoin kan konkurrera med dagens valutor.

During the past year it has been made possible to buy back a company?s outstanding stock. This is done in order to change the capital structure towards a situation with less equity. A change in capital structure means a change in the cost of capital for a company and by that a change in the value for the stockholder. This Master Thesis studies the relation between capital structure and business risk.

Syfte: Studera sju portföljer och notera den bästa typen av portfölj med högst avkastning till lägst risk.Metod: Sekundärdata är grunden för uträkning av samtliga portföljers avkastningar, risker och korrelation. Studien är deduktiv med kvantitativa inslag av kända teorier av nobelpristagare i ekonomisk vetenskap. Slutsats: Studien visar att stora bolag i olika branscher är ett vinnande portföljinnehåll för denna studie. Stora bolags aktier har visat högre avkastning till lägre risk jämfört med små bolag under studiens tid då ekonomiska kriser drabbade marknaden. Den mest presterande portföljen var därför storbolagsportföljen.Vidare forskning: Längre tidsperspektiv och nya teorier som Jensens alfa samt Treynorkvot är av intresse för vidare forskning för att styrka vår slutsats..

This study addresses mandatory non-trading periods for Swedish stock market participants which have implemented an open-market share repurchase program during the period 2000 until 2010. By locating the date of publication of interim reports, these mandatory non-trading periods called silent periods are examined. The result indicates that repurchase trading activity occurs despite the statutory prohibition. By studying the price support hypothesis assumptions about long- and short-term effect on share price and performance, this study tries to explain these tendencies. An average decline of share price and performance is shown among companies entering silent periods.

Since 1996 the Swedish households have ten folded their volume of loans for own homes that is attached to a floating interest rate. Also in 1996 the Swedish electric market was deregulated. These two facts have increased the volatility in the household expenses for these two commodities. This thesis studies the risk for homeowners attached to the exposure against the electric and the credit market. The risk model used is Cost-at-Risk which is usually used by public authorities for analysing the risk involved with national debt.