There are many potential investment options for investors and they should be able to compare them on a risk-adjusted basis. If investors rely only on pure return they can be exposed to a high risk. Therefore, many investors rely on adequate performance measures to evaluate potential investment opportunities. In this paper, we describe widely used risk-adjusted performance measures and add correlation through the M3 measure. We apply described measures to real financial data in order to rank managers and compare rankings between measures. We also look at the following year measures to compare the results with predictions.

The general outcomes of this article come from a hypothesis that expanding the BRICS currencies in the contemporary World System of Currencies (WSC) is going to be a major driver of reinforcing financial stability and transforming the WSC by means of the internationalisation process as a result of direct international settlements as well as through purchasing them using currency vehicles at the national foreign exchange markets. As a result there emerges a need to analyse the BRICS currencies’ circulation abroad, identifying the stages and directions of their internationalisation, considering the role they may play in the future development of the economies and near-by regions, their cooperation in mutual trade, investment flows, technology exchange, research and development, energy, financial stability and economic security. The article is especially time-relevant since the yuan is becoming a world reserve currency that may change the structure and the mechanism of the WSC.

Changes in the amount, structure and composition of the information factors point to future changes in a society. This makes it possible to formulate a hypothesis or a law of information impact on a society: increase of information speeds social development, and vice versa, a decrease of information inhibits it. A consequence of what can be called a sociological law of information is that an index of increase/decrease of the amount of information points to the changing direction of social developments, and especially to the turning points in seemingly stable trends. In this article, the above-mentioned conclusion is discussed on the basis of socio-political and financial and economic data.

The article describes what indicators of the condition of society are used in Russia and abroad. Publications in which happiness, subjective economic well-being, life satisfaction, subjective quality of life and others are considered in this capacity, are reviewed. The question of the role of personality traits in assessing the situation in the country is raised, as well as the impact of these assessments on the economic behaviour of citizens. The results of the empirical study of 260 subjects using questionnaires, which include questions about the political, psychological, social, economic situation in the country, economic behaviour and psycho-diagnostic tests, are presented. The interrelations of assessments of the political and psychological situation in the country with personal traits and debt behaviour are revealed. Extraversion and openness to experience are negatively, and conscientiousness is positively interconnected with positive assessments of the state of the Russian society. The differences in assessments of the state of the Russian society among respondents with different investment preferences are described.

Development model based on the export of raw materials and high dependence on external economic conditions are among the main strategic threats to the national security of the Russian Federation in the field of economy. So, a number of states, not without reason, are trying to realize these threats in order to achieve their geopolitical goals by imposing different restrictions, various prohibitions and multiple sanctions. Some results of the analysis of the impact of the anti-Russian sanctions on the Russian foreign trade in 2014-2016 I present in this article. For the sphere of foreign trade, it is shown that the negative impact of prohibitions and sanctions, as well as adverse external and unfavourable internal processes and factors, had a greater impact, first of all, on the fuel and energy, petrochemical and machine-building complexes. The subjects of the Russian Federation with a high concentration of export and import, oil and gas extraction and metal-production were affected stronger than other regions. Along with this, the impact of sanctions and the response of the Russian government are stronger on the export of Russian products than on imports.

The article presents a review of the literature and the results of an empirical study of strategies for repayment of multiple debts in a laboratory experiment and their connection with the personality traits of the respondents (N = 348). The main strategies of debt repayment are identified - Rational, Semi-rational, Aversive, Distributive, Chaotic and Ignoring of small numbers. The smallest group in the empirical study is the group of respondents with Rational strategy. Respondents of all the groups, except Rational, were compared among themselves on personal characteristics. Respondents with the Semi-rational strategy, in contrast to respondents with other strategies, demonstrate a greater propensity for risk. An Aversive strategy is characterised by a tendency to reduce the number of debts and is demonstrated by respondents when performing various tasks. Respondents with a Chaotic strategy made multiple mistakes in the simulation and, in comparison with all other respondents, are less open to new experience. Respondents with a strategy for paying off debts Ignoring small numbers turned out to be more benevolent than Chaotic respondents and respondents with the Close to rational strategy.

In the course of the research, we identified seven risk groups, analyzed their influence, and formulated possible measures of the risk mitigation. For initial coin offerings projects, we formulated a special risk-assessment scoring system based on a 100-point scale. Investment risks (volatility) were one of the main issues. The only effective option of risk-management here is risk aversion - the refusal of any interaction with the cryptocurrency market. On the other hand, traditional risk management method of diversification has proved its worth and viability on empirical studies of portfolio investments. The portfolio should not be mostly “crypto” but rather it should also consist of traditional assets. It is necessary to consider the opportunity to quit the cryptocurrency market for a short period of time, to prevent the harmful consequences of dramatic price shifts.