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.

An efficient market implies that the use of fundamental analysis should not result in excess return, and that any return exceeding the market average can be explained by compensation for risk, accord-ing to The Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM). The focus of this study is to test whether the suc-cessful investment strategy developed by Piotroski (2000) generates excess return on American data, after risk adjustment by using Fama & French?s (1993) 3-factor and Carhart?s (1997) 4-factor CAPM. Initially we form stock portfolios based on companies characterized by high book-to-market values, additionally, we divide them into different performance classes by ranking them with Piotroski?s (2000) measure of financial performance, F_SCORE.

Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to test for the existence of Capital Structure Arbitrage oppertunities in the equity-credit markets. Methodology: The mispricing of Credit Default Swap contracts are calculated and used as input in an Equity-Credit market trading strategy. The returns are then evaluated with a modified Value-at-Risk simulation. Theoretical perspectives: A Merton-based structural model, CreditGrades, is used for credit pricing and a mispricing-convergence trading-strategy between the credit and equity markets is implemented. Empirical foundation: Daily quotes for the Credit Default Swap spread of 37 European firms were collected for a period of two years, as well as equity-prices for the same period and the previous two years, used for model calibration.

Background: The devolopment in the exchange market has attract a large number of investors. The information flow is extensive and it might be hard to follow the dynamic market. Some investors therefore choose to place their capital in a stock portfolio which is manged by a professional firm with no influence from the capital owner, this management is called discretionary managing. Purpose: the purpose of the thesis is to examine the working methods and the rationality regarding the management of the discretionary portfolios. The purpose is also to try to examine whether there is a relation between the selected risk, return and fees.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine and analyse which effects a service strategy has on the control system of an organisation. The thesis takes a service perspective, and it is assumed that a service strategy gains competitive advantage and that the goal of the service strategy is to increase the customers? satisfaction level. A qualitative in-depth case study was performed on a Swedish beauty company. The organisation?s vertical structure was examined, from central to local level.

Pairs trading is a relatively new trading strategy, the strategy has only been used during a couple of decades. A study made on the American stock market has shown that the strat-egy has generated a positive result. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate if pairs trad-ing has been able to create a positive result on the Swedish stock market during the time period of 1995-2004.The data required for this thesis was collected from Stockholm stock exchange and is ad-justed for splits and issues.The pairs trading strategy involves two stages ? identification of pairs and trading signals. The pairs were identified during a period of 12 months.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate if a dynamic investment strategy on the Swedish asset market can accomplish better returns then a static investment strategy. The dynamic investment strategy is created by incorporating business cycle predictors and firm-level variables to predict future stock returns. The predictive regression is calculated wih 60 months of observation (1999 01-2005 12) and is then used to estimate future returns for 23 months in the period 2004 01 -2005 11. The structure of the regression, with linear functions of ? and ?, goes back to Shanken (1990) and Avramov and Chordia (2005) has had success with the variables chosen.

This thesis examines underpricing and the long run performance of IPO firms on the Swedish equity market during 1994-2010. We further investigate whether any correlation exist between underpricing and post-IPO performance during 36 months. We use a sample of 80 IPO firms. To examine the aftermarket performance we compare total return of each firm with a matching industry index. In order to strengthen our analysis, we run a second test, comparing actual return for each firm with expected return, adjusted for firm specific risk.

Purpose: The purpose of this study has been to investigate whether Frennberg & Hanssons earlier study of anomalies still are correct, and if these are valid for certain sectors. Methodology: In an effort to find seasonal patterns on the Swedish exchange market, we have used the average daily returns. By using these patterns we have created investment strategies which have then been tested over a 10 year period. We also used t-tests to verify our results. Conclusions: We have been able to prove a change in the seasonal patterns that Frennberg & Hansson presented in their study.

The aim of this study was to examine how individuals with disability pension reason about a return to work. Action theory, as presented by Berglind, was used as theoretical approach. Qualitative interviews were conducted with five individuals who have disability pension due to mental illness. The respondents describe how they weigh benefits and disadvantages against each other. The main reason for a return to work is economical.

This paper investigates whether the traditional accrual based trading strategy first documented by Sloan (1996) can be refined using fundamental analysis. Specifically, this is done by implementing the composite signal F_SCORE introduced by Piotroski (2000) to identify financially strong or weak firms. We find that by applying both investment models simultaneously, in a model we call P_KOMB, the mean market-adjusted return earned by an investor exploiting the accrual anomaly can be increased by 14.8% annually. This is achieved by taking a long position in strong firms (as defined by the composite signal) in the lowest accrual portfolio, while an offsetting short position is taken in weak firms in the highest accrual portfolio, repeated annually between 1997 and 2007. Consistent with prior studies, positive market-adjusted returns can be attained through assessment of accruals as well as key value drivers found in historical financial data.

The purpose of this essay is to evaluate stock index bonds return to risk ratio in order to investigate to which degree an investor in a stock index bond take part of the underlying index return and what the investor must pay for the security of not losing his funds. In order to carry out this evaluation an average return per year and the Sharpe ratio will be calculated and a mean- standard deviation analysis will be made. All investigated stock index bonds are based on a Swedish underlying asset.The results show that the stock index bonds haven?t generated a higher risk adjusted return than its underlying asset. The stock index bonds took part of 57 % of the underlying assets return, and the loss of 10 percentage points per year for the stock index bonds compared to its underlying asset can be seen as the cost for the guarantee a stock index bond gives..

In this essay I want to investigate how the poodle strategy affects a person?s credibility when he or she uses it. The poodle strategy is a strategy, which someone uses when he or she is scrutinized by the media. It?s primary purpose is to suppress further media coverage but it is also a strategy for defending oneself and hence rescuing one?s reputation either as a private person or as an official.The essay?s research questions are:How has the strategy been applied for defensive purposes and what are the results?To which extent can the Stasis theory and Benoit?s theory on Apologia be connected to the strategy?Does the strategy affect the user?s credibility?To answer these questions four cases from the political sphere in Sweden where persons have been said to have ?done a poodle? have been analyzed.

Trading based on technical analysis has its roots in the U.S. financial industry where it has long been common practice, in Sweden however the trading style has not had the same impact. Based on the results from the preliminary study we believe this is about to change and that the topic therefore requires further studying. Several online stockbrokers today provide information and tools for technical analysis to their clients. As the list of indicators to use for creating strategies is so immense it is interesting for an investor to know what actually could be the basis for a profitable investment strategy.

Yahtzee is a popular dice game around the world. The complexity makes the game interesting to play and analyze. This report compares the effectiveness of the mathematically optimal strategy with a strategy that can be used for casual play. The rules used are those of the Nordic variant Yatzy, in which a few but important rules are different from the American Yahtzee. To evaluate the everyday strategy 100,000 games was simulated in a java program written specifically for this purpose.