Fair value model based system, method, and computer program product for valuing foreign-based securities in a mutual fund

1. A method for determining fair value prices of financial securities of international markets, comprising the steps of:

at a computer, receiving electronic data for a pre-selected universe of securities of an international market;

at said computer, computing overnight returns of each security in the selected universe over a predetermined past period of time;

at said computer, determining out-of-sample or back-testing performance of a plurality of return factors;

at said computer, selecting at least one return factor of a domestic financial market from the plurality of return factors, based on at least the determined out-of-sample or back-testing performance;

at said computer, computing, for each selected return factor, the return factor's daily return over said predetermined past period of time;

at said computer, calculating, for each selected return factor, a return factor coefficient for each security in the selected universe by performing a time series regression to obtain the contribution of each return factor's return to the security's overnight return; and

transferring one or more of the calculated return factor coefficients to a third party via an electronic network;

wherein the calculated return factor coefficients can be used in conjunction with current return factor daily return values to predict current overnight returns for all securities in the selected universe of securities, which predicted current overnight returns can be used in conjunction with closing prices on said particular international market of each security of said selected universe to determine a fair value price of each security of said selected universe.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising, at said computer, selecting a universe of securities of a particular international market.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the step of selecting the universe of securities comprises the step of selecting securities from the group of substantially all relatively active securities in a selected international market.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of computing overnight returns uses historical price data to compute overnight returns of each said security over said predetermined past period of time.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein said plurality of return factors includes domestic market return, domestic sector return, exchange traded fund (ETF) return for said selected international market, and American Depositary Receipt (ADR) return for each security in said selected universe.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of selecting at least one return factor comprises the step of selecting at least two return factors.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of calculating a return factor coefficient includes the step of adding a security price fluctuation factor into said time series regression.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the step of calculating a return factor coefficient comprises solving the equation:

r i =β m m+β s s j +ε.

9. The method of claim 7 , wherein the step of calculating a return factor coefficient comprises solving the equation:

r i =β m m+ε.

10. The method of claim 7 , wherein the step of calculating a return factor coefficient comprises solving the equation:

r i =β m ( s j +m )+ε.

11. The method of claim 7 , wherein the step of calculating a return factor coefficient comprises solving the equation:

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12. The method of claim 7 , wherein the step of calculating a return factor coefficient comprises solving the equation:

r i =β e e+ε.

13. The method of claim 7 , wherein the step of calculating a return factor coefficient comprises solving the equation:

r i =β e e+ε.

14. The method of claim 7 , wherein the step of calculating a return factor coefficient comprises solving the equation:

r i =β m m+β e e+ε.

15. The method of claim 1 , wherein said electronic data on said universe of securities is received through an electronic network.

16. A system for determining fair value prices of financial securities of international markets, comprising:

a fair value server coupled with an electronic data network and configured to receive electronic data for a pre-selected universe of securities of an international market, to compute overnight returns of each security in the selected universe over a predetermined past period of time, to determine out-of-sample or back-testing performance of a plurality of return factors, to select at least one return factor of a domestic financial market from the plurality of return factors, based on at least the determined out-of-sample or back-testing performance, to compute, for each selected return factor, the return factor's daily return over said predetermined past period of time, to calculate, for each selected return factor, a return factor coefficient for each security in the selected universe by performing a time series regression to obtain the contribution of each return factor's return to the security's overnight return, and to stores one or more of the calculated return factor coefficients; and

a data storage facility coupled with said fair value server configured to store electronic data for a pre-selected universe of securities of an international market and electronic data for said one or more calculated return factor coefficients.

17. The system of claim 16 , wherein said data transfer network is further configured to transfer one or more the calculated return factor coefficients to a third party.

18. The system of claim 16 , wherein said fair value server is further configured to select the universe of securities of a particular international market.

19. The system of claim 18 , wherein said fair value server is further configured to select the universe of securities comprises selecting securities from the group of substantially all relatively active securities in a selected international market.

20. The system of claim 16 , wherein said fair value server is further configured to compute overnight returns using historical price data to compute overnight returns of each said security over said predetermined past period of time.

21. The system of claim 16 , wherein said plurality of return factors includes domestic market return, domestic sector return, exchange traded fund (ETF) return for said selected international market, and American Depositary Receipt (ADR) return for each security in said selected universe.

22. The system of claim 16 , wherein the at least one return factor comprises at least two return factors.

23. The system of claim 16 , wherein said return factor coefficient includes a security price fluctuation factor into said time series regression.

24. The system of claim 23 , wherein said return factor coefficient is based on the solution to the equation:

r i =β m m+β s s j +ε.

25. The system of claim 23 , wherein said return factor coefficient is based on the solution to the equation:

r i =β m m+ε.

26. The system of claim 23 , wherein said return factor coefficient is based on the solution to the equation:

r i =β s ( s j +m )+ε.

27. The system of claim 23 , wherein said return factor coefficient is based on the solution to the equation:

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28. The system of claim 23 , wherein said return factor coefficient is based on the solution to the equation:

r i =β e e+ε.

29. The system of claim 23 , wherein said return factor coefficient is based on the solution to the equation:

r i =β e e+ε.

30. The system of claim 23 , wherein said return factor coefficient is based on the solution to the equation:

r i =β m m+β e e+ε.