The document provides an overview of investment fundamentals, detailing the process, types, characteristics, and objectives of investments. It distinguishes between savers and investors, emphasizes the relationship between risk and return, and categorizes investments into financial and economic types. Additionally, it describes different types of investors based on risk-bearing capacity and highlights the importance of liquidity, safety, and return in the investment decision-making process.
The Investment DecisionProcess - Types of Investments - Commodities, Real Estate and Financial
Assets - Security Market Indices - Sources of Financial Information - Concept of Return and Risk
CONTENTS
Meaning of Investment
Types of Investments
Characteristics of Investment
Objectives of Investment
Types of Investors
Investment Management Process
TYPES OF INVETMENT
Investmentmay be classified as financial investment or economic investment.
Financial investment means the commitment of funds to derive future income in the
form of interest, dividend, premium, or appreciation in the value of the initial
investment.
Hence, the purchase of shares, debentures, post office savings certificates, and
insurance policies are all financial investments.
Such investments generate financial assets.
Economic investments are undertaken with an expectation of increasing the current
economy’s capital stock that consists of goods and services.
Investment in this sense implies the expectation of formation of new and productive
capital in the form of new constructions, plant and machinery, inventories, and so on.
Such investments generate physical assets.
9.
CHARACTERISTICS OF INVETMENT
Thefeatures of economic and financial investments can be
summarised as:
Return
Risk
Safety
Liquidity
10.
RETURN
In fact, investmentsare made with the primary objective of deriving a
return.
The expectation of a return may be from income as well as through
capital appreciation.
Dividend or interest represent income, whereas, capital appreciation
is the difference between the sale price and the purchase price of the
investment.
Return from an investment depends upon the nature of investment,
maturity period, market demand, and so on.
11.
RISK
Risk is inherentin any investment.
Risk may relate to loss of capital, delay in repayment of capital, non-
payment of interest, or variability of returns.
The risk of an investment is determined by the investment’s maturity
period, repayment capacity, nature of return commitment, and so on.
12.
SAFETY
Safety is anotherfeature that an investor desires from investments.
Every investor expects to get back the initial capital on maturity
without loss and without delay.
A highly reputed and successful corporate entity assures the investors
of their initial capital.
13.
LIQUIDITY
An investment thatis easily saleable or marketable without loss of
money and without loss of time is said to possess the characteristic of
liquidity.
Some investments such as deposits in unknown corporate entities,
bank deposits, post office deposits, national savings certificate, and so
on are not marketable.
Investment instruments such as preference shares, equity shares and
debentures are marketable.
14.
OBJECTIVES OF INVETMENT
Themain objective of an investment process is to minimise risk while
simultaneously maximising the expected returns from the investment
and assuring safety and liquidity of the invested assets.
Thus, the objectives of investment can be stated as:
1) Maximisation of return.
2) Minimization of risk.
3) Hedge against inflation.
4) Utilisation of tax incentive schemes.
15.
TYPES OF INVESTORS
Investorscan be classified on the basis of: (1) risk-bearing capacity of the investors, and
(2) groups of investors.
On the basis of risk-bearing capacity of
the investors, they may be: (a) risk
seekers, (b) risk avoiders, or (c) risk
bearers.
A risk seeker is capable of assuming a
higher risk while a risk avoider chooses
instruments that do not show much
variation in returns.
Risk bearers fall in between these two
categories. They assume moderate
levels of risk.
On the basis of group of investors, they
may be: (a) individual investors, or (b)
institutional investors.
Individual investors in any financial
market are large in number, but in terms
of value of investment they are
comparatively smaller.
Institutional investors, on the other
hand, are organisations with surplus
funds beyond immediate business needs
or organisation whose business
objective is investment.