This paper identifies the relationship between changes in oil prices and the returns of the world's highest-producing oil companies. Oil companies are divided into state-owned (national) and private companies. This paper focused on three different time periods to identify the relationship between changes in oil price and stock market returns by examining the specific backgrounds of each period. The results revealed that during oil's bearish market, it was more beneficial for investors to prefer state-owned companies to optimise their portfolios. The risk analysis focused on systematic risk, and the beta coefficients confirmed that state-owned companies are less sensitive to market shocks. State-owned companies are supported by governments during periods of downtrends in oil prices; therefore, they are less likely to go bankrupt. However, these companies do not have as much flexibility as private companies to cut their costs; therefore, they are more negatively affected by market movements not defined by shocks.

This paper focuses on the profitability of investments into IT, finance, healthcare and consumer goods oriented active and passive mutual funds and ETFs and their profit/loss in different market situations (growing, stagnant and decreasing markets).The aim of the paper is to set recommendations for investors as regards which instrument (active or passive mutual fund or ETFs) brings higher return or lower loss over the time and market development and if investors can expect different results based on the sector orientation, which sector is more sensitive to bullish or bearish trends. Our results show that neither ETF nor passive mutual funds were able to beat the market, as the sector index brings better results than these investments in all situations. Within bearish trend, all sector ETFs and passive mutual funds bring the same results as sector index, only active managed mutual funds bring better results. The lowest loss during this period was achieved by active managed mutual funds focusing on healthcare. Bullish and stagnant markets bring quite the same results, but passive funds and ETF are more profitable than active mutual funds in growing markets.

This paper deals with exchange traded funds (ETFs) and valuation it’s performance according to selected indicators. For empirical analysis 10 leveraged and non‑leveraged ETFs listed on US market is chosen according to selected criterias (adequate history at least 7 years, daily presented NAV, accessibility for retail investor). Observed time period was 2010–2015 and selected investment horizon is 1, 3 and 6 years. Funds are analyzed on the basis of NAV in the terms of return and risk represented by selected indicators (like Sharpe ratio, Traynor ratio, Information ratio, Apparaisal ratio and indicators like alfa (Jensen Alfa) and beta. Results are commented in a broader context in summary and discussion chapter as well as recommendations. Measured by classical Sharpe ratio, both groups bring to investor pretty same results, but e.q. by Information ratio by non‑leveraged ETF shows very clearly the importance of work by ETF portfolio manager. Only a few leveraged ETF bring to the investor adequate ratio between profit and level of risk.

The main aim of this paper is to test the impact of the selected macroeconomic indicators and to define the indicators that have the largest influence on the mortgage credit market in the Slovak Republic, the Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary from 2006 to 2016. We choose this particular group of countries because these countries are close, both geographically and economically, and information about them is easily accessible. The individual data are taken quarterly and we obtain them from the websites of national banks, from hypo.org, oecd.org and the Eurostat statistical database of the European Union. With the purpose to fulfill the stated goal, we examine existence and character of relationship between the selected macroeconomic variables and the volume of mortgage loans by the correlation analysis. Macroeconomic indicators for the correlation analysis are inflation rates, unemployment rates and mortgage loans interest rates. The results show that there is a positive correlation between mortgage loans and mortgage loans interest rates in the Slovak and Czech Republic. The results also confirm the positive dependence of the relationship between mortgage loans interest rates and the inflation rates in Poland and the Slovak Republic. ÚvodHypotekárne úvery majú nezastupiteľné miesto vo väčšine krajín na svete. Ich úlohou je zabezpečiť financovanie nehnuteľností a rôznych investícií, ktoré sú spojené s bývaním. Prirodzenou potrebou človeka v spoločnosti je zaobstarať si bývanie podľa vlastných predstáv či už prostredníctvom prenájmu, alebo vlastníctvom bytu, či domu. Problém, ktorý je spojený s bývaním v dnešnej dobe, nie je nedostatok nehnuteľností, ale predovšetkým nedostatok finančných zdrojov. S rastom zadlženosti domácností sa stretávame v dnešnej dobe čoraz častejšie, pretože obyvateľstvo nie je schopné splácať svoje dlhy. S tým nepriamo súvisia aj úrokové sadzby hypotekárnych úverov, ktoré pretrvávajú na nízkej úrovni od roku 2015 a v súčasnosti neustále klesajú. Jednou z príčin poklesu úrokový sadzieb je aj vzájomná konkurencia v bankovom sektore v jednotlivých krajinách. Najviac využívaným prostriedkom na financovanie bývania je hypotekárny úver, ktorý je aj ústrednou témou tohto vedeckého článku.Motívom, prečo bola vybraná táto téma, je práve to, že hypotekárne úvery sú ekonomickou pákou, pomocou ktorej sa merajú rôzne indikátory napr. spokojnosť domácnosti. Ide o aktuálnu tému, či už kvôli spomínaným nízkym úrokovým sadzbám, alebo neustále rastúcemu záujmu o hypotekárne úvery. Vlády podporujú hypotekárne úvery pre mladých, kde pri