The value of a dollar changes dramatically, depending on when you can take control of the dollar and invest it. The critical variable in the exact value of a dollar is time. If someone owes you a dollar, do you want him to pay you today or next year? Yes! The answer is, Today. With inflation consistently destroying the purchasing power of a dollar, a year from now a dollar will be worth slightly less than it is today. “Inflation” is an economic term used to describe the gradual tendency of prices to rise over time. If inflation is 2% per year, which means that prices, on average, will rise 2% over the next year, which in turn means that your dollar can purchase 2 cents less in a year than it can today. That’s right, with 2% inflation, a dollar today is worth only 98 cents in a year. Continue reading
Investment Management
Strategies of Futures Contracts
A futures contract is an agreement between two parties to buy or sell an asset at a certain time in the future at a certain price. Futures contracts are special types of forward contracts in the sense that the former are standardized exchange-traded contracts. Futures Trading Strategies We look here at some strategies of futures contracts. We refer to single stock futures. However since the index is nothing but a security whose price or level is a weighted average of securities constituting an index, all strategies that can be implemented using stock futures can also be implemented using index futures. Hedging: Long security, sell futures Speculation: Bullish security, buy futures Speculation: Bearish security, sell futures Arbitrage: Overpriced futures: buy spot, sell futures Arbitrage: Under-priced futures: buy futures, sell spot 1. Hedging: Long security, sell futures Futures can be used as an effective risk–management tool. Take the case of an investor Continue reading
What is Investment ? – Concept, Definition and Features
Concept of Investment Man, it is said, lives on hope. But, hope is only a necessary condition for life, but not sufficient. There are many other materialistic things that he needs – food, clothing, shelter, etc. And, like his hope, his needs too keep changing through his life. To make things more uncertain, his ability to fulfill the needs too changes significantly. When his current ability (current income) to fulfill his needs exceeds his current needs (current expenditure), he saves the excess. The savings may be buried in the backyard, or hidden under a mattress. Or, he may feel that it is better to give up the current possession of these savings for a future larger amount of money that can be used for consumption in future. In contrast to the above situation, if the amount available for current consumption is less than the current needs, he has to Continue reading
Major Characteristics of Investments
Certain features characterize all investments. The following are the main characteristics of investments: 1.Return: All investments are characterized by the expectation of a return. In fact, investments are made with the primary objective of deriving a return. The return may be received in the form of yield plus capital appreciation. The difference between the sale price & the purchase price is capital appreciation. The dividend or interest received from the investment is the yield. Different types of investments promise different rates of return. The return from an investment depends upon the nature of investment, the maturity period & a host of other factors. 2.Risk: Risk is inherent in any investment. The risk may relate to loss of capital, delay in repayment of capital, nonpayment of interest, or variability of returns. While some investments like government securities & bank deposits are almost risk less, others are more risky. The risk of Continue reading
Types of Credit Derivatives
In finance, a credit derivative is a securitized derivative whose value is derived from the credit risk on an underlying bond, loan or any other financial asset. In this way, the credit risk is on an entity other than the counter-parties to the transaction itself. This entity is known as the reference entity and may be a corporate, a sovereign or any other form of legal entity which has incurred debt. Credit derivatives are bilateral contracts between a buyer and seller under which the seller sells protection against the credit risk of the reference entity. Similar to placing a bet at the racetrack, where the person placing the bet does not own the horse or the track or have anything else to do with the race, the person buying the credit derivative doesn’t necessarily own the bond (the reference entity) that is the object of the wager. He or she Continue reading
Portfolio Analysis in Investment Portfolio Management
The main aim of portfolio analysis in investment portfolio management is to give a caution direction to the risk and return of an investor on portfolio. Individual securities have risk return characteristics of their own. Therefore, portfolio analysis indicates the future risk and return in holding of different individual instruments. The portfolio analysis has been highly successful in tracing the efficient portfolio. Portfolio analysis considers the determination of future risk and return in holding various blends of individual securities. An investor can sometime reduce portfolio risk by adding another security with greater individual risk than any other security in the portfolio. Portfolio analysis is mainly depending on Risk and Return of the portfolio. The expected return of a portfolio should depend on the expected return of each of the security contained in the portfolio. The amount invested in each security is most important. The portfolio’s expected holding period value relative Continue reading