Background: Funds have become a more popular way for investments. After the financial crisis in 2008 there was some sectors that shown a better results than other depending if the sector was affected by the economic situation or not. Therefore can  investments in sector funds be a good way to get a high return, but it also has a high risk.Problem: Has the risk any impact on the return considered funds in sectors that is affected by the economic situation relatively to sectors that isn?t affected by the situation in the economy?Purpose: Determine whether sector funds risk has any impact on the return. Also if there are any differences between sectors depending if they are affected by the economic situation or not.

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.

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..

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.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine the difference in return between Swedish and Russian hedge funds while considering the risk taken.Method: This study is based on quantitative data on funds' historical returns from the electronic database Morningstar.se. Additional data is taken from the funds websites, the Swedish National Bank and Fondbolagens förening.Result and conclusion: All hedge funds, both the Russian and Swedish performed better thanthe index. The Russian hedge funds nevertheless performed better than their Swedishcounterparts in all three evaluation methods..

The purpose with this study is to investigate funds that are environmentally friendly. Environment issues has become a large subject that affects all aspects in today?s society.  It is a global issue which has affected the awareness of environmentally friendly products and its benefits for the environment.How has this awareness affected the financial market?  In this study the authors have looked at six environmentally sound funds and six energy funds to answer the question if it´s better to have your money in traditional energy or in renewable energy.This study is made in an quantitative way, the data has been gathered from the internet database Morningstar. The energy funds have had its biggest assets in companies dealing with oil, and the environmentally sound funds have had its biggest assets in renewable energy. Bye looking at the different funds rate of return and relating that to risk managing theories of Sharpe and Treynor, the authors compared the two types of funds.During the period that was looked at during this study ( third quarter of 2007 until third quarter 2010) the energy funds outperformed the environmentally sound funds in every aspect. .

The success of fund saving in Sweden came in 1978 when the government introduced the favorable tax fund savings system. Today funds are the most used form of saving in Sweden, so that it can be calculated that the value of fund savings exceeds 1500 billion SEK. Savers can choose from a variety of funds, the most common being mutual funds. Since many banks offer similar funds it is difficult to know which one has the best fund administrationThe purpose of this study is to examine which of the four biggest banks in Sweden has the best fund administration. The banks are, SEB, Handelsbanken, Nordea and Swedbank.

The general pension supplement introduced in 1960 which introduced the public pension funds in Sweden. In the late 1990s the Swedish pension system was reformed and established the current structure. Today, funds are one of the most common forms of savings in Sweden and mutual funds are the most common type.The purpose of this study is to analyze the risk-adjusted returns for the AP funds in the period 2003-2009. Study was based on five funds that are most similar and have the same mission. These funds are AP1, AP2, AP3, AP4 and AP7.The method used in this study is mainly based on a survey of the figures and measurable units of statistical methods that have been carried out by a quantitative 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.

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.

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.

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.

The first four AP-funds have a well-diversified Swedish portfolio, which is managed in similar way as the largest Swedish bank funds. Up until today, there has not been any comparable study that focuses specifically on this part of the AP-funds. Our aim is two-folded; First we will look at how well the AP-funds have managed their Swedish assets compared with Swedish funds of the four largest banks in Sweden during 2002-2006. This will be done by looking at some important key ratios and both absolute and active return. Secondly we will present a descriptive analysis of the management structure within the respective organisations, to be able to draw conclusions regarding the possible deviations in investment return.

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..