Strategisen beetan ETF:t piensijoittajan näkökulmasta

Tämä opinnäytetyö tutkii Morningstarin lanseeraamaa luokittelua käyttäen ns. strategisen beetan ETF:ien historiallista menestystä suhteessa toisiinsa ja vertailuindekseihinsä sekä suhteessa passiiviseen SPDR S&P 500 ETF:ään niiden strategioiden osalta, joiden on katsottu soveltuvan keskivertopiensijoittajalle. Työn tavoitteena on lisäksi selventää strategisen beetan konseptia siten, että lukija on tietoinen eri strategioiden ominaisuuksista ja erityispiirteistä, mahdollistaen perustellun sijoituspäätöksen tekemisen. Tutkimusryhmää on rajattu siten, että tutkittavien strategisen beetan ETF:ien tulee olla dollariarvoisia ja listattuna Yhdysvaltalaisessa pörssissä. Lisäksi ETF:n tulee olla toiminut vähintään viisi vuotta. Tutkimukseen on valittu seitsemän yleisimmin käytettyä strategiaa, ja yksi kutakin strategiaa edustava ETF. Valituista strategioista viisi luokitellaan tuottohakuisiksi: osinkopainotteinen strategia, tuottostrategia, kasvustrategia, fundamentaalistrategia ja momentum-strategia. Lisäksi alhaisen volatiliteetin strategia edustaa riskikeskeisiä strategioita ja tasaisen painotuksen strategia muita strategioita. Tutkimuskohteiden menestystä on mitattu historialliseen dataan perustuen viiden vuoden mittaisella ajanjaksolla 1.1.2010 – 1.1.2015. Raakadatasta on laskettu seuraavat tunnusluvut kvantitatiivisia menetelmiä käyttäen: kumulatiivinen tuotto, vuosittainen tuotto-odotus, volatiliteetti, Sharpen luku ja tuottoero eli tracking error. Lisäksi vertaillaan rahastojen ilmoittamia vuosittaisia kuluja. Tutkimustulosten perusteella tuottostrategia ja kasvustrategia ovat saavuttaneet tarkastelujaksolla parhaat kumulatiiviset tuotot ja menestyneet myös riskikorjatun tuoton ja kulurakenteen suhteen hyvin. Kaiken kaikkiaan neljä seitsemästä strategiasta oli tuottavampia kuin vertailukohteena ollut passiivinen markkina-arvopainotteinen SPDR S&P 500 ETF. Tulosten perusteella piensijoittajan on suositeltavaa harkita strategisen beetan ETF:iä osaksi portfoliotaan tuomaan markkinatuoton ylittävää tuottoa eli alfaa

Water Crossings Versus Transport Cost: A Network Analysis Case Study

This study determines the impact of fewer water crossings on hauling and road construction costs in a case study situation, and demonstrates the ease and versatility of network analysis in the planning and analysis of forest roads. Using a fixed grid network and modification of a standard network analysis technique allows the solution of large networks in only a few seconds on a personal computer (486-33MHz). The removal of 15 out of a total of 38 culverts resulted in a haul cost increase of $20 068 (CAD) for 1.2 million m3 hauled. However, removal of the first 14 culverts only increased the haul cost by$5236. The road construction cost saving from not installing the culverts was estimated to be $75 000 if all 15 culverts were not installed or$70 000 if 14 culverts were not installed. The case study indicated that considerable savings are possible through better planning of forest roads, especially with the additional expenses required to mitigate environmental impacts

Economic Impact of Secondary Intermediate Transport of Pulpwood to Truck Transport Depots in South Africa: Three Case Studies

Shorthaul transport, known as secondary intermediate transport (SIT), is an additional transport phase within traditional secondary transport in South Africa. It originates at roadside landing or depot and terminates at another depot or rail siding (not the final destination). The use of SIT is forced by poor and steadily declining forest road conditions, to the extent that highway type vehicles are unable to reach roadside landings. This necessitates the use of intermediate storage sites, from which the timber is once again loaded and transported to its final destination. A network analysis model and grid cell-based geographic information system were combined to analyse the various transport scenarios within three study areas in the KwaZulu/Natal Midlands of South Africa, employing SIT on poor, high-density forest road networks. Results show the South African forest industry's average annual transportation cost penalty, by maintaining SIT, to be $US 4.32 million or$US 0.82/m3 over the cost of transportation over an improved road network using only secondary terminal transport. This cost differential does not account for the cost of upgrades required to eliminate the need for SIT. However a net present value cost analysis of the inclusion of road upgrade costs versus the average annual transportation cost savings and increased forest yield from decommissioned roads, maintains a positive financial benefit. Economic analysis highlighted the need for reduced road network densities and for improvement of the remaining network. This would eliminate extended primary transport, multiple loading, unloading and storage by allowing highway vehicles to transport timber from compartment roadside to its final destination

Ecosocial Autonomy as an Educational Ideal

Autonomy – or rational self-control – is not only fashionable as an educational ideal, but also in present-day economics, ethics, and society in general. However, the concept of traditional autonomy is problematic because it privileges humans and treats the rest of nature primarily as resources fit only for human exploitation. This anthropocentrism has led human beings to see themselves as superior to nature and separate. Ecosocial autonomy is an attempt to redress the balance, by contextualising autonomy so it incorporates the idea of self-control, while taking into account the impact of humankind on our surrounding ecosystems. Our formulation of ecosocial autonomy is an extension of relational autonomy – based mainly on ecological, ecosocial, and ecofeminist ideas. Ecosocial autonomy is thus contextualized within a multispecies society which includes our interdependencies with other living creatures. Whereas the individualist idea of autonomy suggests a human being owes nothing to society, ecosocial autonomy acknowledges the need to cultivate aspects of self-sufficiency that combine reason, emotional maturity, and will. A competitive society presupposes individual autonomy and the need to defend oneself. Ecosocial autonomy advocates a form of social interaction that diverts the human energy misspent on individual competition to mutually beneficial collaboration

EigenScape : A Database of Spatial Acoustic Scene Recordings

The classification of acoustic scenes and events is an emerging area of research in the field of machine listening. Most of the research conducted so far uses spectral features extracted from monaural or stereophonic audio rather than spatial features extracted from multichannel recordings. This is partly due to the lack thus far of a substantial body of spatial recordings of acoustic scenes. This paper formally introduces EigenScape, a new database of fourth-order Ambisonic recordings of eight different acoustic scene classes. The potential applications of a spatial machine listening system are discussed before detailed information on the recording process and dataset are provided. A baseline spatial classification system using directional audio coding (DirAC) techniques is detailed and results from this classifier are presented. The classifier is shown to give good overall scene classification accuracy across the dataset, with 7 of 8 scenes being classified with an accuracy of greater than 60% with an 11% improvement in overall accuracy compared to use of Mel-frequency cepstral coefficient (MFCC) features. Further analysis of the results shows potential improvements to the classifier. It is concluded that the results validate the new database and show that spatial features can characterise acoustic scenes and as such are worthy of further investigatio