Running head: Investment Fundamentals
Investment Fundamentals
American InterContinental University
Abstract This paper will calculate the returns on five investments to illustrate how they work. It will also discuss the different types of investments a person can make, along with the differences between the various types of bonds. Furthermore it will state what bond ratings indicate, and the two major agencies that are in charge of assigning these ratings
Introduction As stated by Gitman, Joehnk, & Smart (2011, p. 3) “Any asset into which funds can be placed with the expectation that it will generate positive income and/or preserve or increase its value.” A dollar in hand today is worth more than a dollar to
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According to Gitman, Joehnk, & Smart (2011, p. 9) “The key forms of fixed income securities are bonds, convertible securities and preferred stocks.” As stated by AIU Online (2011, p. 8) “A bond is an interest bearing instrument that requires the issuer to pay interest payments in regular intervals and the face amount of the bond upon expiration to the bond investor.” Convertible securities, is considered a special type of fixed-income obligation, it allows for the investor to convert it into an income benefit of a bond. Preferred stock is very similar to common stock it represents part ownership of a corporation and do not have a maturity date. However, a preferred stock has a fixed dividend rate. Preferred shareholders are paid before the common shareholder.
Mutual funds, is an investment company that sells shares representing an interest in a portfolio of securities. Some mutual funds concentrate their investment in capital market securities such as stocks and bonds. They are commonly known as money market mutual funds, they invest solely in short term investment vehicles. Mutual funds are an inexpensive method for investor to have a well-diversified portfolio of securities. According to Investopedia ULC (2011, p. 1) “Hedge funds are most often set up as private investment partnerships that are open to a limited number of investors and require a
Although this investment class can be considered the most conservative of the three, the low yield of government bonds in the past 10 years does not lend a comparative metric against many other investment opportunities (Jacobs, 2012). The fixed rate of these instruments allows for a guaranteed return, but should only be utilized at a point in an investing cycle when risk is higher than potential income growth. The 25% allocation that is invested in this class is positioned to provide a long term guaranteed investment, with the possible that these lower rates will not rise significantly in the next few years.
These decisions may include selling and buying of stocks, bonds, futures, currencies and so on. Stocktrak.com helps to implement the investment decision process as it includes evaluation tools for securities being traded at stock market. The website provides graphical historical performance of stock prices and this graphical performance can be analyzed for making different investment decisions related to those stocks. This project will be investing the given specified amount in a portfolio. The portfolio investment will help to reduce the level of risk associated with investment. With the reduction in level of risk, the average return of portfolio investment will increase as compare to individual investments. Thus, portfolio investment is better option for investment as compare to individual
Mutual Funds are a pool of funds collected from many investors in order to purchase stocks, bonds, and other investments in greater amounts. Mutual funds are shares of ownership in a group of companies.
Each strategy will be used in a different way or ‘style,’ leaving funds of the same strategy with varying results. For example Australian Equity had an average one year return of -6.76 per cent, while Australian Fixed Interest had an average one year return of 6.99 per cent. Comparing the average one year return for each strategy illustrates which funds have the most reliable or steady rate of return, and in this case the most reliable funds are those with fixed interest. This is coherent with the risk factors associated with the different strategies, even though fixed interest is considered low risk and offers low returns, these returns are more reliable than strategies with a high risk, and therefore still perform positively under times of economic crisis.
think of a mutual fund as a company that brings together a group of people and invests
Mutual funds represent a portion of its holdings. It’s buying into certain products sold by the company. An example is investing in beef products. Anything that occurs with the meat products can affect the amount of money earned. Should a recall happen, people that
A short-term investment objective is defined as one that will be accomplished within a period of two to five years.
In the United States, a society plagued by capitalism, investing has become a way of life. To most Americans it begins with opening a savings account and slowly allowing that money to grow through the compounded interest rate over the years. While it may not seem like a big step in generating more income, nonetheless, this is a positive movement in the market of investments. With the many types of investments available knowing which are reliable, or safe, or yield good returns, are just some of the questions on the investors mind. Within each asset class there are investments to suit different kinds of risk, duration, returns and liquidity.
Preferred stock has a preferred position in the claim on the income flow of the firms. Preferred stock dividends, usually a fixed rate relative to par value, are paid ahead of common stock dividends. The dividends of preferred stocks are different from and generally greater than those of common stock. Corporate bonds are debt instruments created by companies for the purpose of raising capital. They are called fixed-income securities because they pay a specified amount of interest on a regular basis. Preferred and Common stocks have three major risk factors: 1) dividend suspension or company failure, 2) rising interest rates, 3) low trading volumes. Most corporate bonds are debentures, meaning they are not secured by collateral. Investors of such bonds must assume not only interest rate risk but also credit risk; they chance that the corporate issuer will default on its debt
The learning objectives for students in this course are: (l) improve your understanding of financial securities and markets, (2) develop the ability to analyze investment companies, common stocks, and bonds for investment decisions, (3) understand how options are
A mutual fund manager is a person who actively buys or sells and sometimes both funds. They are experienced in implementing a funds strategy used for investing and manages its trading activities as well as the portfolio. Choosing whether or not to invest in Ford Motor Company will take the use of a SWOT analysis and learning about the stakeholders of the company.
Money Market Mutual Funds are investments whose purpose is to provide investors with a safe place to invest. They are
Hedge funds are investment vehicles that explicitly pursue absolute returns on their underlying investments. Hedge Fund incorporate to any absolute return fund investing within the financial markets (stocks, bonds, commodities, currencies, derivatives, etc) and/or applying non-traditional portfolio management techniques including, but not restricted to, shorting, leveraging, arbitrage, swaps, etc. Hedge funds can invest in any number of strategies. Hedge fund managers typically invest money of their own in the fund they manage, which serves to align their interests with
Mutual funds are an easy, convenient way to invest, without having to worry about choosing individual stocks. A mutual fund can be defined as a single portfolio of stocks, bonds, and/or cash managed by an investment company on behalf of many investors. The investment company manages the fund, and sells shares in the fund to individual investors. When one invests in a mutual fund, they become a part-owner of a large investment portfolio, along with all the other shareholders of the fund. The fund manager invests the contributions when shares are purchased, along with money from the other shareholders. Every day, the fund manager counts up the value of all the fund's holdings, figures out how many shares have been purchased by
What type of financial investments would you invest in if you were given 10,000 dollars, what made you choose these investments, as well as; how did your choices affect your decision as to tracking these financial investments through the usage of financial strategies and trends. While finding the right pecuniary investment to finance in is never an easy decision, one must first do their research as to what type of financial resources are available on the market to invest in; then apply those financial decisions and strategies to their financial market plan. Let’s begin with what a financial market does, “financial markets perform a vital function: they transfer funds from savers (individuals and organizations willing to defer using some