Bitcoin for energy commodities before and after the December 2013 crash: diversifier,hedge or safe haven?

We study the relationship between Bitcoin and commodities by assessing the ability of Bitcoin to act as a diversifier, hedge, or safe haven against daily movements in commodities in general, and energy commodities in particular. We focus on energy commodities because energy, in the form of electricity, is an essential input in the Bitcoin production. For the entire period, results show that Bitcoin is a strong hedge and a safe-haven against movements in both commodity indices. We further examine whether that ability is also present for non-energy commodities and our analysis show insignificant results when energy commodities are excluded from the general commodity index. We also account for the December 2013 Bitcoin price crash and our results reveal that Bitcoin hedge and safe-haven properties against commodities and energy commodities are only present in the pre-crash period, whereas in the post-crash period Bitcoin is no more than a diversifier. In addition to uncovering the time-varying role of Bitcoin, we highlight the dissimilarity in the dynamic correlations between the extreme downward and extreme upward movements.     

关于中国铝期货市场套期保值绩效的实证研究

套期保值是企业利用期货市场进行风险控制的重要过程。利用金融衍生产品进行风险管理的关键问题是确定套期保值比率。通过对中国沪铝期货套期保值绩效的实证研究发现基于DVECH-GARCH的动态套期保值比基于OLS的静态套期保值避险效果好。选择一定的套保模型进行对冲交易,铝加工企业能够有效地分散铝现货的市场风险,稳定企业生产经营。     

Basis risk in static versus dynamic longevity-risk hedging

This paper provides a tractable, parsimonious model for assessing basis risk in longevity and its effect on the hedging strategies of Pension Funds and annuity providers. Basis risk is captured by a single parameter, that measures the co-movement between the portfolio and the reference population’s longevity. The paper sets out the static, full and customized swap-hedge for an annuity, and compares it with a dynamic, partial, and index-based hedge. We calibrate our model to the UK and Scottish populations. The effectiveness of static versus dynamic strategies depends on the rebalancing frequency of the second, on the relative costs, and on basis risk, which does not affect fully-customized, static hedges. We show that appropriately calibrated dynamic hedging strategies can still be reasonably effective, even at low rebalancing frequencies.     

Do Corporate Governance Motives Drive Hedge Fund and Private Equity Fund Activities?

We document empirical evidence that both hedge fund (HF) and private equity fund (PE) investments are driven by corporate governance improvements, but address different types of agency conflicts. Whereas HFs focus on firms without a controlling shareholder, in particular family shareholders, PEs invest in firms with low managerial ownership. Both appear to address free cash flow problems differently. Aiming at increasing dividends, HFs tend to use commitment devices that can be implemented over a short horizon. PEs are inclined to longer‐term strategies: they target firms that are particularly well suited for leverage increases because of low expected financial distress costs.     

利率期货在商业银行经营管理中的应用研究

在国外的银行业，利率期货是防范利率风险的常用手段。在我国，随着利率市场化的推进。防范利率风险对于银行的经营和国家的金融稳定显得越来越重要，而传统的资产负债管理在利率市场化条件下存在很大的局限，利用利率期货的套期保值可以弥补传统资产负债管理在化解利率风险方面的不足。我国应该根据条件成熟程度，逐步推出各类金融衍生品，从而建立起一个完整的金融衍生品市场体系，为商业银行提供金融衍生品开发与交易的基础工具。     

恒生指数和沪深300股指期货套期保值效果对比研究

本文利用OLS、ECM、ECM-GARCH模型对沪深300股指期货和恒生指数期货的最优套期保值率进行了估算,并在风险最小化框架下对它们的套期保值效果进行了对比研究。结果发现:无论是哪种股指期货,不考虑期现货间存在的协整关系会使估算的最优套期保值率偏高,影响套期保值效果;其次是虽然在样本内外,沪深300股指期货的套期保值效果比恒生指数期货的好,但是沪深300股指期货套期保值效果的稳定性比恒生指数差。此时,ECM-GARCH和OLS模型分别为样本内外投资者利用沪深300指数期货进行套期保值时的最佳选择;对于恒生指数股指期货,最优模型是ECM。     

The forced registration of hedge funds in the United States

This article recounts the history of hedge fund regulation in the United States over the last century, including Congressional legislation as well as legal cases mounted both by and against the Securities and Exchange Commission. Traditional arguments for and against hedge fund regulation are discussed. The article argues that neither hedge funds nor their managers should be regulated—whether directly or indirectly. Rather, financial or trusted advisors who recommend these products to investors should bear the regulatory burden.     

A revisit to the hedge and safe haven properties of gold: New evidence from China

We examine the role of gold as a hedge and safe haven from the perspective of Chinese investors. Using the Shanghai Futures Exchange (SHFE)-Gold futures prices and the CSI 300 index from 2008 to 2017, we find that gold is not a hedge against the Chinese stock market on average. However, gold acts as a safe haven when market returns are below their 1%, 5%, and 10% quantiles and during the two crash periods. Our findings apply to most of the industry sectors as well. We also show that the role of gold can change drastically due to some market policy reforms.     

The heterogeneous behaviour of the inflation hedging property of cocoa

In this paper, we examine distinctly the inflation hedging potential of cocoa in net cocoa-exporting and net cocoa-importing countries. The choice of cocoa is motivated by its significance as a key ingredient in the production of chocolate which is largely consumed at every household and therefore serves as a major source of revenue to cocoa investors in exporting and importing countries. Based on our preliminary analyses including panel causality tests, we formulate both panel threshold regression model and panel smooth transition regression model in order to account for any inherent nonlinearity, time-variation and structural breaks in the inflation-cocoa returns nexus. We find that cocoa offers better inflation hedging characteristics in cocoa importing countries than their cocoa exporting counterparts. While the results are robust to alternative frequency and market size, we are able to establish that ignoring the presence of threshold effects may lead to wrong conclusions.