Project ideas

gerry87

Hey,

I've to do a final year project for an Economics Degree, it can basically be on anything. I really wanted to do it on something to do with shares, but i'm kinda running out of ideas.

The first idea I had was to see if a company's inclusion in an portfolio increased the stocks correlation with the other stocks in the portfolio. So basically if people pick stocks for a portfolio because the have the lowest correlations, after they're included, the correlations aren't the lowest any more.

Then I talked to a lecturer who said there probably wouldn't be much milage in that idea and suggested i read a paper written recently which has found stocks with high idiosyncratic risk, tend to have lower returns than stocks with low risk. I got data on the ftse 100 and it seems to be true, but there's not a whole lot to write about it.

Can anybody suggest any thoughts on those ideas, or new ideas/papers to read? Any thoughts would be great.

damnyanks

Do research into the impending growth within commodities and emerging markets. Follow what products are being sold and how they will eventually become the new credit crunch / tech bubble / junk bond etc.

daheff

you could look at the growth in commodity etfs (eg GOLD, OIL, Wheat, silver, corn etc etc) and how their increased popularity is (partly) responsible for increased commodity prices (linked to inflation)

It would be highly topical and relevant (lectures love that!)

Or just ETFs in general...as they are the new growth area in finance.