An Analysis and Evaluation of Investment Strategies (2010)
Evaluation of Investment Strategies Dissertation – Efficient Markets Hypothesis has been recently more often challenged on base of the empirical evidence which was suggested not be consistent with the theory such as excess volatility, market seasonalities, auto-correlation and predictability of equity returns. There is still ongoing discussion on relevancy and interpretation of these phenomenons and its consequences in investment strategy.
This work link empirical data gathered from equity markets to equity markets theory and investment strategy framework. Importance of the work lies in providing guidance to investors on capital allocation on equity markets. Utility of three investment strategies was evaluated in this work which were buy and hold (index), contrarian and momentum. Research is focused on research of mutual funds and custom portfolios in regard to their returns and investment strategy.
In mutual funds research the funds were categorized on base of their investment strategy and performance parameters were evaluated to generalize which strategies provided the best results. In research of stock returns three portfolios were constructed and returns analyzed in search for mean reversion and auto-correlation patterns.
Using automation of some calculations provided by VBA programming language enabled processing of large data sets for more than 70 stock with daily trading data mostly back to 1990. Research output suggests superiority of buy & hold strategy which is linked to Efficient Market Hypothesis. Buy&hold was shown to produce best risk-adjusted returns. This apply to both mutual funds and stock portfolios returns. Some less common patterns were observed in stock portfolios and possible explanation suggested within Efficient Markets Hypothesis framework.
- 15,000 words – 60 pages in length
- Excellent use of literature
- Excellent in depth analysis
- Well written throughout
- Outstanding MBA Finance dissertation
Introduction
Critical Review of Literature
Efficient Markets Hypothesis
Seasonalities and Excess Volatility
Behavioral Finance and New Views on Market Efficiency
Technical Analysis
Portfolio Theory and Risk Measure
Investment Strategy
Mutual funds
Methodology and Data Collection
Mutual Funds Investment Strategies
Portfolios Returns and Mean Reversion
Economic Background of the US Equity Market 1990 – 2008
Research Findings and Analysis
Mutual Funds Investment Strategies
Analyses of Funds with Distinctive Investment Strategies
Portfolios Returns and Mean Reversion
Conclusions and Recommendations
Abbreviations
Bibliography
Appendices
