Investment Alternatives

Essay by nitingupta83University, Master'sA-, July 2008

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INVESTMENT ALTERNATIVES: AN UPDATE

Contents

2Investment Categories �

2Real Assets �

2Financial Assets �

2Direct Investments �

2Indirect Investments �

2Money Market Instruments �

2Treasury Bills �

3Short-term Municipals �

3Commercial Paper �

3Bankers' Acceptances �

4Repurchase Agreements �

4Capital Market Financial Instruments �

4Long-term Bonds �

4Treasury Notes and Bonds �

5Agency Securities �

5Municipal Bonds �

5Corporate Bonds �

5Preferred Stock �

6Common Stock �

6Foreign Stocks �

6Indirect Investments �

6Mutual Funds �

6Closed-end Funds �

7Exchange Traded Funds �

7Hedge Funds �

7Derivatives �

7Convertible Securities �

7Warrants �

8Options �

8Futures �

8Bank Deposits �

8Fixed Deposits �

8Recurring Deposits �

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Investment Categories

All the investment alternatives can be categorized into 2 categories -

Real Assets

These are the physical or identifiable assets such as land, equipments, patents, gold etc. These tend to be most desirable during the periods of high inflation.

Financial Assets

These are the indirect claims to the real assets. Eg. Stocks, bonds, bank deposits etc.

These can further be sub-divided into 2 categories -

Direct Investments

These are investments where you take actual direct ownership of the assets.

Indirect Investments

These are investments where you have indirect ownership, such as mutual funds, ETFs, and REITs

Money Market Instruments

The money market is comprised of high quality, short-term, large denomination debt instruments. Following are the types of money market instruments -

Treasury Bills

Treasury bills are used to provide short-term liquidity for the U.S. government.

These are backed by the "full faith and credit" of the U.S. government.

They are issued with original maturities of 4 weeks, 13 weeks, 26 weeks and 52-weeks.

They do not pay interest, instead they are sold at a discount to face value and are redeemed at maturity for their full face value.