网络笔记
网络笔记
● Real assets create wealth. Financial assets represent claims to parts or all of that
wealth.
● Financial assets determine how the ownership of real assets is distributed among
investors.
● Financial assets can be categorized as fixed-income (debt), equity, or derivative
instruments.
● Top-down portfolio construction techniques start with the asset allocation decision—the
allocation of funds across broad asset classes—and then progress to more specific
security-selection decisions.
● Competition in financial markets leads to a risk-return trade-off, in which securities that
offer higher expected rates of return also impose greater risks on investors. The
presence of risk, however, implies that actual returns can differ considerably from
expected returns at the beginning of the investment period.
● Competition among security analysts also results in financial markets that are nearly
informationally efficient, meaning that prices reflect all available information concerning
the value of the security. Passive investment strategies may make sense in nearly
efficient markets.
● Financial intermediaries pool investor funds and invest them. Their services are in
demand because small investors cannot efficiently gather information, diversify, and
monitor portfolios.
● The financial intermediary, in contrast, is a large investor that can take advantage of
● scale economies.
● Investment banking brings efficiency to corporate fund raising. Investment bankers
develop expertise in pricing new issues and in marketing them to investors.
● By the end of 2008, all the major stand-alone U.S. investment banks had been absorbed
into commercial banks or had reorganized themselves into bank holding companies. In
Europe, where universal banking had never been prohibited, large banks had long
maintained both commercial and investment banking divisions.
● The financial crisis of 2008 showed the importance of systemic risk. Systemic risk can be
limited by transparency that allows traders and investors to assess the risk of their
counterparties, capital requirements to prevent trading participants from being brought
down by potential losses, frequent settlement of gains or losses to prevent losses from
● accumulating beyond an institution’s ability to bear them, incentives to discourage
excessive risk taking, and accurate and unbiased analysis by those charged with
evaluating
● security risk.
Morningstar stuff
Section 2: Pensions
● Two types of pensions are defined benefit and defined contribution (Look at ISAs)
○ Defined benefits are increasingly rare
● A pension fund is a company sponsored fund that provides income in retirement
● Usually employers invest fixed contributions in a tax deferred account
● Employees access it through withdrawals
● Private pension funds are becoming increasingly scarce
● The amount that one gets is a percentage of an employee's final salary or highest salary
○ The formula is years of service * final average salry * benefit multiplier
○ Benefit multiplier is usually 1-2%
● Pension funds are the number one institutional investor
● Things that influence how much money will be in pension fund
○ Size and number of contrubutions
○ Growth rate
○ How long fund is is allowed to grow
○ Charges and costs
● When one gets older, they can do three things with the pension money
○ Buy an annuity
○ Keep money in fund
○ Withdraw money
● Companies also have obligations to give money to pension funds
● Companies may make pre-payments in anticipation of changes
● Over/underfunded status is recorded in balance sheet as pension asset/liability
● Five components of pension expenses
○ Service cost
○ Interest cost
○ Less than expected return on plan assets. First 3 recognized immediately. Last
two have delayed recognition.
○ Amortization of prior service costs
○ Amortization of net gain or loss = pension expense
● PBO is the present value of an employee's pension that is, how much one person's
account has accumulated
Section 2: Taxes
● Many investment wrappers are tax deferred
● For example, when withdrawing income from a pension, 25% of the money is tax free
● The main taxes include income tax, savings tax, capital gains taxes
Section 3: Loans
● Debt is an investment security and those securities are called bonds
● The types of bonds include treasury, municipal, and corporate bonds
● Corporate debt can be secured or unsecured
○ Secured is when the debt is insured by some kind of collateral
■ Mortgages are secured by a house
■ Equipment trust certificates are secured by a piece of equipment
○ Unsecured or debentures are only secured by faith and good credit
● Some special types of bonds include Junk bonds or those rated below BBB by S&P or
Baa by Moody's
● Another type is convertible
● Zero coupon bonds are debt securities that don't pay a coupon and only pay one coupon
at maturity
● Money market bonds are liquid, short term bonds that provide safety, liquidity, and are
sold at .a sharp discount to the face value
● The yield curve measures how much each bond pays for each time period
● Financial institutions raise debt through vehicles such as commercial paper, certificates
of deposit, and federal funds, etc.
● Treasury bills are less than a year, notes last from 1-10 years, and bonds are from 10-30
years
● There are many savings bonds (Look at Section 1)
○ Series HH savings bonds are 20 year investments that pay semi annual interest
● There are two types of municipal bonds
○ General Obligation bonds are for public facilities in general
○ Revenue bonds are for a particular public works project
■ A net revenue pledge means that costs will be paid first, then the
bondholders and a gross revenue pledge means that bondholders will be
paid first
● Municipal bonds are free of federal tax
Section 3: Mortgages
● Mortgage backed securities are mortgages compiled by a bank
○ They securitize it and place it in its own corporation called a Special Purpose
Entity and sell shares
● CMOs, or collateralized mortgage obligations, are purchased in $1000 increments
○ These are divided into tranches which are of different quality and pay interest
based on that quality
○ Interest payments last a certain amount of time and when interest rate payments
on that tranche is over, the next tranche pays out interest
Alternative:
● UK company/fund traded on London exchange that is structured to invest in other
companies
● They can adjust their investment criteria
● Investors pay a charge of 2% when buying new shares
Section 8: Futures
● Futures are derivatives that are contracts to buy or sell a specific financial instrument at
a specific date in the future
● Futures can be used by businesses to mitigate a price to hedge price change since the
price is locked in
● For example, farmers can lock in prices to hedge a position if a contract goes wrong
● Futures can also be used to speculate on financial markets
● There are five standard components of a contract
○ Futures markets are open 24 hours a day six days a week
■ Each product has its own unique trading hours
○ Tick sizes, or how much the price can fluctuate, differ
○ One contract represents a certain amount of something
■ One contract of oil represents 1000 barrels one gold contract is 100 troy
ounces
○ Contract value is another component (number of contracts * price)
○ Futures are either financially or physically settled
■ Financially settled contracts make payments in money while physical
contracts pay physical goods
● Futures can be traded with margin or leverage to control massive amounts which can
amplify gains and losses
○ If someone is losing money, they will need to meet a margin call and put more
money
● Futures have their origins in the commodity industry
● S&P 500 Futures are sold in betting on the E Mini S&P 500
● Most futures are sold on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange
● Futures positions are settled on a daily basis
● The US futures market is regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission
(CFTC)
● Futures have expiration dates as well
Section 8: Options
● Options are derivatives
● It is an alternative way to invest in the movement of a security
● Option contracts give someone the right to purchase or sell a security before a date
● They have calls and puts
○ Calls are to buy
○ Puts are to sell
● To buy an option, someone must pay a premium
○ This is calculated by the stock price, time until expiration (Time Value), and
Implied Volatility (how much the price will move)
● Options can be exercised
● If the option passes the expiration date, it expires and is worthless
● Option pricing is very complex
● Options can be sold on the open market
● Options are sold mainly on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and the Chicago Board of
Options Exchange
● The options clearing corporation guarantees all CBOE traded options if a writer breaches
contract
● Options can be used for many securities
● They can be used for speculation and hedges
● An investor can write or buy an option
● The price in which the security is transacted is called the strike price
● A price is in the money when the price is above (or below for puts) the strike price
○ When it is out of the money, it is below (or above for puts) the strike price
● Spreading is using two opposite options positions to hedge and speculate a bet
● American options can be executed before the date but European options are executed
on the date
● LEAPS are long term options
● The Investment Advisors Act of 1940 regulated financial advisors by requiring them to
register with the SEC
○ It defined Investment Advisors and Representatives
● The Trust Indenture Act of 1939 regulated the issuance of debt securities
○ This included bankruptcy, collateral, and conflicts of interest
● The Investment Company Act of 1940 regulated mutual funds
● Many common types of financial crime include Insider trading, embezzlement, tax fraud,
insurance fraud, identity theft, money laundering, and credit card fraud
○ Many have to do with securities
● Market manupulation is when a person gives false information to the market
● Market abuse is when investors use information not publicly available, use false
information, manipulate the market in any other way