Portfolio and Security Analysis Commons^™

Equity Fund Monthly Report, January 2023, Bryant University, Archway Investment Fund

Archway Investment Fund

No abstract provided.

The Historic Returns Of Gold: Is It The Best Hedge Against Inflation?, Jack William Gillis

Honors Theses and Capstones

The world of investing is rapidly changing as technologies advance. In the past few years especially, we have seen many investors shifting toward decentralized digital money, or what is known as cryptocurrencies. Even with these new asset classes coming out, there has always been one commodity that has stuck around. Gold has been used as a store of value for millenniums. Investors tend to rely on gold because it’s believed to be a safe-haven asset, in times of economic uncertainty. This paper aims to determine whether or not this traditional mindset is still effective in today’s ever-changing investment environment. To …

Ownership Of Esg Characteristics, Mark E. Bateman, Lisa R. Goldberg

School of Public Service Faculty Publications

A portfolio can be viewed as the collection of the businesses, policies and practices of constituent companies. We measure investors' Ownership of this collection. Ownership metrics aggregate an assortment of company specific Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) characteristics to the portfolio level, and they can inform investment and engagement decisions. Relative to a benchmark, investor Ownership is active and satisfies a zero-sum property, which underscores the distinction between Ownership and impact. Ownership of ESG characteristics may be interpreted as ascribing ethical responsibility, but that conclusion and any decisions that result from it belong to the investor.

Do Divestment Announcements Affect Fossil Fuel Company Stock Returns?, Wesley Dale

CMC Senior Theses

In response to growing dissatisfaction from environmental activists, many large institutional investors have committed to divesting from fossil fuel related assets. Understanding the financial effects of these divestment movements is crucial to assessing their impact on climate change. Using a financial event study methodology with a sample of 50 divestment announcements from 2014 to 2022, this paper examines the effect that the announcement of these divestment decisions has on the stock returns of oil & gas and coal companies. I find the short term effect on stock prices following a divestment announcement to be insignificant, and I show that more …

Blockchain Games: What On And Off-Chain Factors Affect The Volatility, Returns, And Liquidity Of Gaming Crypto Tokens, Sumer Sareen

CMC Senior Theses

Blockchain games took the internet by storm as they offered a new way for users to play video games, own the assets in those games, and benefit monetarily from their efforts. Through Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) and cryptocurrencies, new, Web3 games ushered in a unique asset class for retail and institutional investors to diversify into and benefit from. This paper uses cross-sectional data from 30 blockchain gaming companies to identify on and off-chain factors that affect the company’s token volatility, returns, and liquidity. A multiple linear regression found the percentage of tokens dedicated to a company’s private sale and rewarding users, …

Presidential Economic Approval Rating And The Cross-Section Of Stock Returns, Zilin Chen, Zhi Da, Dashan Huang, Liyao Wang

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

We construct a monthly presidential economic approval rating (PEAR) index from 1981 to 2019, by averaging ratings on the president’s handling of the economy across various national polls. In the cross-section, stocks with high betas to changes in the PEAR index significantly under-perform those with low betas by 1.00% per month in the future, on a risk-adjusted basis. The low PEAR beta premium persists up to one year, and is present in various sub-samples and even in other G7 countries. PEAR beta dynamically reveals a firm’s perceived alignment to the incumbent president’s economic policies and investors seem to misprice such …

Art Investment Funds And Nfts, Francesca Osborne

MA Theses

Art price inflation, rising levels of wealth, and the artworld’s financialization have
/="/">changed the way investors view the art market. In an attempt to capture the
/="/">momentous returns realized by successful collectors, art investment funds have
/="/">emerged with the conviction art can be used as a speculative or strategic alternative asset. However, the majority of art funds have been dissolved or put on hold. This paper examines the investment characteristics of fine art to uncover the rationale for art investment fund failures, finding the art market’s inefficiency as the foremost explanation. Subsequently, non-fungible token (NFT) art and …

Endogenous Market Choice, Listing Regulations, And Ipo Spread: Evidence From The London Stock Exchange, Hafiz Hoque, John Doukas

Finance Faculty Publications

This study examines the endogenous market choice and its impact on underwriter spread if Alternative Investment Market (AIM) IPOs that meet Main Market (MM) listing requirements had issued equity in the MM during the 1995–2021 period. We find that the spread is 1.33% higher in the AIM than the MM for IPO listings that meet the MM listing requirements. This finding suggests that AIM companies, meeting the MM listing requirements, could have saved more than £100 million by going public through the MM than the AIM market. We also find that this spread differential is attributed to the issuing firms' …

Financial Statement Analysis Project: "The Big Simulation", Luna Y. Goldblatt, João Branco Chaves, Andrew M. Landman, Salmin B. Mwinjuma, Braden C. Vitelli

Open Educational Resources

This project uses real-world financial statements (for Best Buy Co. Inc. and Nvidia Corporation) and creates a role-playing game where students can choose to be one of 4 capital market participants: an innovator that designs a brand-new accounting system, a company that prepares its best version of financial statements, an investor that chooses its ideal portfolio stocks, and a forensic accountant that looks for evidence of earnings management. The project helps student learn to conduct financial statement analysis and appreciate the impact of these statements on company financial ratios and capital market performance.

Equity Fund Monthly Report, December 2022, Bryant University, Archway Investment Fund

Archway Investment Fund

No abstract provided.

Forecasting Variance Swap Payoffs, Jonathan Dark, Xin Gao, Thijs Van Der Heijden, Federico Nardari

WCBT Faculty Publications

We investigate the predictability of payoffs from selling variance swaps on the S&P500, US 10-year treasuries, gold, and crude oil. In-sample analysis shows that structural breaks are an important feature when modeling payoffs, and hence the ex post variance risk premium. Out-of-sample tests, on the other hand, reveal that structural break models do not improve forecast performance relative to simpler linear (or state invariant) models. We show that a host of variables that had previously been shown to forecast excess returns for the four asset classes, contain predictive power for ex post realizations of the respective variance risk premia as …

Navigating Insolvency Risks In Emerging Markets, Aurelio Gurrea-Martinez, Elena Daly

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Most emerging markets have weak legal and institutional environments that generally lead to low levels of predictability and legal certainty. Moreover, the insolvency framework of most emerging markets is very inefficient, providing creditors with low recovery rates. Therefore, extending credit to companies in emerging economies may result in additional risks for lenders. This article explains how lenders can navigate some of these risks. By doing so, it is expected that, as a result of the higher level of creditor protection, companies in emerging markets will be able to have greater access to finance. Therefore, these strategies can ultimately benefit debtors …

Equity Fund Monthly Report, November 2022, Bryant University, Archway Investment Fund

Archway Investment Fund

No abstract provided.

Fixed Income Fund Report, November 2022, Bryant University, Archway Investment Fund

Archway Investment Fund

No abstract provided.

Responsible Hedge Funds, Hao Liang, Lin Sun, Song Wee Melvyn Teo

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Hedge funds that endorse the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) underperform other hedge funds after adjusting for risk but attract greater investor flows, accumulate more assets, and harvest greater fee revenues. Consistent with an agency explanation, the underperformance is driven by PRI signatories with low environmental, social, and governance (ESG) exposures and is greater for hedge funds with poor incentive alignment. To address endogeneity, we exploit regulatory reforms that enhance stewardship and show that the ESG exposure and relative performance of signatory funds improve post reforms. Our findings suggest that some hedge funds endorse responsible investment to pander …

The Ursinus College Investment Management Company Newsletter, Fall 2022, Scott Deacle, Maureen Cumpstone, Jess Gutekunst, Michael Magargee

Investment Management Company Newsletter

Inside this issue:

At a Glance

Letter from Jessica Gutekunst '23

Letter from Michael Magargee '23

Investment Team Strategies and Updates

UCIMCO Investment Performance and Analysis

Endowment Outlook

Stock Selection Picks

Women's Fund Picks

Our Teams

Thank You!

How to Contribute

Investment Policy Statement UCIMCO Endowment

Investment Policy Statement UCIMCO Stock Selection

Fixed Income Fund Report, October 2022, Bryant University, Archway Investment Fund

Archway Investment Fund

No abstract provided.

Equity Fund Monthly Report, October 2022, Bryant University, Archway Investment Fund

Archway Investment Fund

No abstract provided.

Doing Well By Doing Good: Analyzing The Dynamics And Effectiveness Of Corporate Engagement, Gillian Meyers

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Sustainable investing and corporate climate action have grown exponentially in the last decade, generating a simultaneous need for customers, investors, and policymakers to determine when companies are genuinely achieving positive impact related to environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) factors. As a result, investors are increasingly employing ESG engagement, which typically takes the form of direct communication with holdings to determine and positively shape their impacts on their stakeholders. In this paper, I explore the reasoning for conducting ESG engagement and refute arguments against it. I fill an existing research gap by analyzing the benefits of ESG engagement to both …

Impact Of Geographical Diversification And Limited Attention On Private Equity Fund Returns, Victor Hock Keong Ong

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

This study analyzes the effect of geographical diversification on global private equity (PE) fund returns. I find that there is a negative correlation between geographical diversification and PE fund returns. To establish the causality between geographical diversification and PE fund returns, I employ an instrument variable analysis where the instrument used is the stock market capitalization value of the host country where the PE fund is based. My results apply to Net IRR, multiple and DPI as dependent variables used to proxy for PE fund returns in the main regression model. A one standard deviation increase in geographical diversification results …

From Shaq To Serena Williams: An Analysis Of Celebrity Spacs, John Boyar

Senior Theses

Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPACs) surged in popularity in 2020 and 2021. For the first time in U.S. history, more SPAC IPOs occurred in a particular year than traditional IPOs and direct listings. Amidst the increase in SPAC IPOs, an expanding number of celebrities became involved with these investment vehicles. This thesis investigates the trend of celebrity backed SPACs by examining how celebrity involvement or association with a SPAC may affect the performance of these equities in the market.

This study examines the SPAC period returns, deSPAC period returns, IPO sizes, deal lengths, and PIPE financing amounts of 339 SPAC …

Fixed Income Fund Report, September 2022, Bryant University, Archway Investment Fund

Archway Investment Fund

No abstract provided.

Equity Fund Monthly, September 2022, Bryant University, Archway Investment Fund

Archway Investment Fund

No abstract provided.

Cognitive Biases Of Trained Finance Professionals In India: An Exploratory Analysis, Labanya Prakash Jena

Management Dynamics

Cognitive biases among trained financial professionals may lead to mismanagement of investment decision-making or inadequate utilization of resources. Not many studies in this domain are available in the Indian context. The objective of the study is to find out the main cognitive biases among finance professionals in India. Using my diverse professional online networks, 162 trained finance professionals’ survey responses are gathered for this study. I used Principal Component Analysis (PCA) method since it is suitable for this study. The PCA method allows to find out the critical group of factors incorporated in the questionnaire and derive the significant factors …

Essays On The Performance Of Option Trading Strategies, Zhuo Li

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation consists of two parts. In the first chapter, we examine the relative performance of four options-based investment strategies versus a buy-and-hold strategy in the underlying stock. Specifically, using ten stocks widely held in 401(k) plans, we examine monthly returns from strategies that include a long stock position as one component. These strategies are long stock, covered call, protective put, collar, and covered combination. Ignoring early exercise for simplicity, we find that the covered combination and covered call strategies generally outperform the long stock strategy, which in turn generally outperforms the collar and protective put strategies regardless of the …

Fixed Income Fund Report, August 2022, Bryant University, Archway Investment Fund

Archway Investment Fund

No abstract provided.

Equity Fund Monthly Report, August 2022, Bryant University, Archway Investment Fund

Archway Investment Fund

No abstract provided.

The Effects Of Csr Reputation And Csr Crisis Response Strategy On Investor Judgments, Clarence Goh

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

I use a controlled experiment to examine, in the context of CSR crises, whether investors’ investment judgments are influenced by a firm’s CSR reputation and CSR crisis response strategy. I find that for good CSR reputation firms, the use of a rebuild or deny crisis response strategy does not lead to improvements in investment judgments. However, for bad CSR reputation firms, the use of a deny response strategy leads to improvements in investment judgments while the use of a rebuild strategy does not.

Do Analysts’ Eps Forecasts Obey Benford’S Law? An Empirical Analysis, Clarence Goh

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

Benford’s law gives the expected frequencies of digits in tabulated data. In this study, I investigate the extent to which a sample of analysts’ earnings per share (EPS) forecasts obey Benford’s law. I conduct Benford’s law’s second digit and last-two digits tests on a sample of analyst EPS forecasts of S&P 500 firms from 1998 to 2018. Overall, I find that analysts’ EPS forecasts obey Benford’s law’s second digit test but do not obey the last-two digits test. These findings suggest that while analysts do not engage in number invention, they do engage in rounding when making EPS forecasts.

Essays On Performance Evaluation Of Portfolio Managers Of Mutual And Hedge Funds, Yuekun Liu

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation consists of three essays focusing on the performance evaluation of portfolio managers of mutual and hedge funds. The first essay shows the performance of corporate bond mutual funds tends to be estimated using models with limited empirical validation. I test several models and find considerable variation in quality. That variation leads to meaningful differences with respect to the stylized facts of corporate bond fund performance. Using my preferred BENCH4 model—a novel model based on funds’ common benchmarks—I find average underperformance, substantial relative performance persistence, a small number of funds with positive alphas unattributable to luck, and positive alphas …