Investments - Lect. 1-3 Flashcards
Real Assets are: (2 things)
(1) Assets used to produce goods and services and (2) Land, buildings, equipment, and human capital
Financial Asserts are: (2 things)
(1) Claims on real assets or the income generated by them and (2) Stocks, bonds, etc.
3 main types of financial assets?
(1) Fixed-income (debt) securities, (2) Common Stock / Equity and, (3) Derivative Securities
Which main type of financial asset: Payments are determined by formula and paid unless the
borrower is declared bankrupt
Fixed-income (debt) securities
Which main type of financial asset: Represents ownership share in the corporation; does not guarantee any payment
Common stock / Equity
Which main type of financial asset includes: Determined by the prices of other assets such as bond or stock prices
Derivative securities
Higher stock price implies:
Less shares of equity needed to raise funds for an investment and higher potential profits for current shareholders
________ of a company bear more risk but will get a higher reward than ________ of a company
Equityholders; Bondholders
“Top-Down” portfolio strategy:
Will look at asset allocation first (e.g. “I want 60% of my money in stocks and 40% of my money in bonds.”)
“Bottom-Up” portfolio strategy:
Will look at security allocation first (e.g. “I want to make sure to buy shares of Anheuser Busch Inbev because their stock is seriously undervalued!”)
Investor’s portfolio is:
The collection of investment assets s/he owns
What happens in “rebalancing” the portfolio?
Adjusting the weights in the portfolio by buying or selling assets
Markets are generally near-efficient, meaning that:
Prices reflected in the market are generally close to the best estimate of the true value of the asset given all relevant information
3 main groups in financial markets:
(1) Firms (2) Households and (3) Governments
The following are ________ __________s: Banks, insurance companies, investment companies, credit unions, etc.
Financial Intermediaries
3 Advantages of investing in financial intermediaries?
(1) Pool resources from many small borrowers, lend more to large borrowers,
(2) Lending to many borrowers = better diversification and (3) Can use economies of scale to assess and monitor risk
What large company needing equity can do:
Sell stocks or bonds, may hire investment bankers to underwrite the issuance
What smaller and younger firms needing equity can do:
Raise private equity through venture capital
Responsibilities of investment banker:
(1) Underwrite the issuance and (2) Handles the marketing of the security in the primary market, not the secondary market
Securities that make up the money market:
(1) Short-term, marketable, liquid, low risk debt securities and (2) Instruments are sometimes called cash equivalents
Securities that make up the capital market:
(1) Longer-term debt markets (bond markets), (2) Equity Markets, and (3) Derivative Markets
Money Market Treasury Bills:
Gov’t issued 0-coupon bond, maturities of 4, 13, 26, or 52 weeks, Minimum $100, usually $10,000, Income earned only taxes at federal level (not state or local), includes a bid-ask spread, bid yield and ask yield given reported using bank discount method w/360 days in a year.
Money Market Certificates of Deposit
Times deposit, interest and principal returned at end of fixed term (can’t withdraw earlier), in denominations larger than $100,000 are negotiable. Typically maturities of 3 months or less, and treated as bank deposits by the FDIC.
Money Market Commercial Paper
Short-term, unsecured debt issued by corporations for
working capital - Sometimes backed by bank line of credit - Has a liquid secondary market - Yields are determined by riskiness and maturity - financial firms recently started issuing asset-backed commercial paper
Difference between Domestic CDs and Eurodollar CDs?
Eurodollar CDs are less liquid and more risky, but offers higher yields.
Yields on Money Market Instruments?
Default-free T-bills are generally considered risk-free - Other MM instruments will carry more default risk and have higher yields that T-bills - Economic Crises and increased default risk among instruments cause yields relative to T-bills to increase.
Treasury Notes and Bonds: (3 things)
(1) Issued in increments of $100, most common is $1,000, (2) BOTH offer semiannual coupon payments, and (3)
Treasury Note maturity: > 1 year - 10 years
T-Bond maturities: 10 - 30 years