Arthur Ritter – författare

Essay from the year 2014 in the subject Business economics - Investment and Finance, grade: 16,0, University of St Andrews (School of Management), course: Research Methods in Finance and Management, language: English, abstract: The size effect is a market anomaly in asset pricing according to the market efficiency theory. According to the current body of research, market anomalies arise either because of inefficiencies in the market or the underlying pricing model must be flawed. Anomalies in the financial markets are typically discovered form empirical tests. These tests usually rely jointly on one null hypothesis H0= markets are efficient AND they perform according to a specified equilibrium model (usually CAPM). Thus, if the empirical study rejects the H0, the reason could either be due to market inefficiency or due to the incorrect model. Market efficiency theory says that the price of an asset fully reflects all current information and is not predictable (Fama 1970). Fama (1997) states that market anomalies, even long--term anomalies, are not an indicator for market inefficiencies due to the reason that they randomly split between "e;underreaction and overreaction, (so) they are consistent with market efficiency"e; (p. 284), they happen by chance and it is always possible to beat the market by chance. This essay will give an overview of the literature of the size effect and will stress the key theories, empirical methods and findings, as well as the existing body of research about this particular anomaly.

Essay from the year 2014 in the subject Business economics - Banking, Stock Exchanges, Insurance, Accounting, University of St Andrews (School of Management), language: English, abstract: ETFs, short for Exchange Traded Funds are traded on the stock market funds. ETFs have no maturity limit and can therefore be permanently traded like shares at the current market price. When buying a fund unit, the investor becomes a shareholder of the components contained in the Funds. The index can be of a country, an industry, or even a global index. Therefore the investor participates identically in rising and falling markets according to the development of the ETF underlying index. Unlike actively managed funds Exchange Traded Funds are mainly passively managed. An underlying index should be reproduced as exactly as possible. ETFs combine the advantages of three asset classes: equities, certificates and funds. Like shares, ETFs can also be traded at the current market value at any time. This Report compares and contrasts the two Exchange traded funds iShares MSCI Taiwan ETF and First Trust Taiwan AlphaDEX. It will discuss a number of key figures and will stress the strengths and weaknesses of each fund. The following key figures for the two funds are based on self--made calculation using Excel and data form Datastream. If any figures are used, which have another source, it will be clearly cited. The time period for all key figures is two years, expect for the Pricing efficiency, which has been calculated for one year. All estimated returns are log returns due to the reason they have the property that they can be interpreted as continuously compounded returns and are addable.

Research Paper (postgraduate) from the year 2015 in the subject Business economics - Investment and Finance, grade: 18, University of St Andrews (School of Management), course: Alternative Investments, language: English, abstract: The following industry and market analysis is primarily based on the most recent Islamic Financial Services Industry Stability Report (2014) provided by the Islamic Financial Services Board. The total amount of assets in the Islamic financial industry was approximately $1.8 trillion by the end of 2013. The Islamic financial industry includes 4 major subcategories, Islamic banking, Sukuk (Islamic capital markets), Takaful (Islamic insurance) and Islamic Microfinance. By far the largest subcategory is Islamic banking with an estimate of 80% of all assets. The remaining 20% split up to Sukuk $245.3 billion, Islamic funds $68.9 billion and Takaful $18.3 billion. The Islamic financial industry is still very small in comparison to the traditional industry, however it is one of the fastest growing sectors with an Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 17,04% between the years of 2009 and 2013. The growth in the Islamic banking industry was, on average, 20% after the recovery of the global financial crisis in 2009. Most of the assets are concentrated in Islamic countries like Gulf Cooperation Council and Malaysia. Beside these major players, other countries in the Middle East or North Africa showed a rapid growth or entered the market. Further growth, mentioned by Iqbal and Tsubota (2006), is also expected because of the increasing demand of Sharia compliant investments and financing due to the growth of oiladollars and the immigration of Muslim people all over the world. The specialty of the regulatory framework for Islamic investments is that they all have to be Shariah confirm. The main principals for Islamic investments are (AlaSuwailem,'2006): It is not allowed to invest money only for the sole purpose of profit. The concept of interest (Riba) is not allowed It is only allowed to invest in companies, which are Shariah confirm (alcohol, weapons, pornography, gambling, etc. are prohibited by the Shariah) Gambling as itself is not allowed No high uncertainty/risk (Gharar) can be taken And the risk must always be shared between the lender and the borrowerOne of the important differences between conventional finance and Islamic finance, as far as risk is concerned, is that in Islamic finance the risk must be split between borrower and lender and very high risk investments like short selling and high leverage is not allowed.

Seminar paper from the year 2014 in the subject Business economics - Investment and Finance, grade: 15 (2,0), University of St Andrews (School of Management), course: Corporate Financial Management, language: English, abstract: Stock market crashes had occurred in the financial market since the very beginning and in every generation (Sornette, 2003a). "e;Greed, hubris and systemic fluctuations have given us the Tulip Mania, the South Sea bubble, the land booms in the 1920s and 1980s, the U.S. stock market and great crash in 1929, the October 1987 crash, to name just a few of the hundreds of ready examples"e; (Sornette, 2003a, p. 7.). This essay will compare and contrast the last three major stock market crashes in 1987, 2000 and 2007. To do this, the essay will pay special emphasis on the causes of the three crashes. From there the essay will draw out the similarities and differences and will answer the question if boom and bust can be predicted.

Seminar paper from the year 2015 in the subject Business economics - Business Management, Corporate Governance, grade: 17, University of St Andrews (School of Management), language: English, abstract: The delivery service industry includes mail and package deliveries for commercial and consumer use by road, air and ship. This report will concentrate on the package and express delivery industry, since the conventional postal and letter business is declining and mostly operated by state--owned companies, which are hard to compare with private--owned companies. Four large companies, FedEx, UPS, DHL and TNT, dominate the market in Europe and the United States. TNT is the smallest among those four. However, TNT is the market leader in two major European markets, UK and Italy. The market in the United States is highly dominated by FedEx and UPS, which almost create a duopoly. The largest player in Europe is DHL, which has 32% of the German market. Furthermore, DHL has around 40% in the Asian market and over 50% in overall central Europe, the Middle East and Africa (Economis, 2015 April 10). Therefore, this report will examine these four companies to generate an overall picture of the delivery service industry. The following SWOT analyses will give a general overview of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the industry. Strengths:- Record Growth: Due to structural changes in the transport routes and order quantities in the freight industry, the package and express delivery service are growing much faster than the total freight market. - Dynamic and sustainable growth of the industry is decreasingly susceptible to economic changes, due to the integration of their services in the everyday live. More and more everyday goods like food and cloth are ordered online and get delivered to the customers home. - Increase of Efficiency: the transport of goods is getting faster and less costly due to highly efficient infrastructure. Weaknesses- Capacity constraints especially in peak phases: demographic changes resulting in lack of both highly qualified personnel as well as in the field of low--skilled workers. - High dependency on major customers: The proportion of sales from major B2B customers is up to 90% for most companies. Opportunities- Volume increase in parcels: In particular parcel delivery to private consumer is driven by the strong increase in online trading. The proportion of returns is steadily increasing. - Speed is becoming an increasingly important factor in the transport sector. In addition to the online trading of non--food products, also food is becoming more and more important. - Just-in-time production

Research Paper (postgraduate) from the year 2015 in the subject Business economics - Banking, Stock Exchanges, Insurance, Accounting, grade: 17 (1,3), University of St Andrews (School of Management), course: Investment and Portfolio Management, language: English, abstract: Empirical evidence of stock return predictability obtained by financial ratios or macroeconomic factors has received substantial attention and remains a controversial topic to date. This is no surprise given that the existence of return predictability is not only of interest to practitioners but also introduces severe implications for financial models of risk and return. Founded on the assumption of efficient capital markets, research on capital asset pricing models has instigated this emergence of stock return predictability factors. Analysing these factors categorically, this paper will provide a balanced discussion of advocates as well as sceptics of stock return predictability. This essay will commence by firstly outlining the fundamental assumptions of an efficient capital market and its implications for return predictability. Subsequently, a thorough focus will be placed on the most significant predictability factors, including fundamental financial ratios and macroeconomic indicators as well as the validity of sampling methods used to attain return forecasts. Lastly this essay will reflect on the findings while proposing areas of further research.