Revised Pages
the valuation and risk-management principles
useful in particular markets, such as those for
bonds or stocks; and will introduce you to the
principles of portfolio construction.
Broadly speaking, this chapter addresses
three topics that will provide a useful per-
spective for the material that is to come
later. First, before delving into the topic
of “investments,” we consider the role of
financial assets in the economy. We discuss
the relationship between securities and the
“real” assets that actually produce goods
and services for consumers, and we consider
why financial assets are important to the
functioning of a developed economy. Given
this background, we then take a first look at
the types of decisions that confront inves-
tors as they assemble a portfolio of assets.
These investment decisions are made in an
environment where higher returns usually
can be obtained only at the price of greater
risk and in which it is rare to find assets that
are so mispriced as to be obvious bargains.
These themes—the risk–return trade-off and
the efficient pricing of financial assets—are
central to the investment process, so it is
worth pausing for a brief discussion of their
THE INVESTMENT ENVIRONMENT PA
RT
I
1 C H A P T E R O N E
AN INVESTMENT IS the current commitment
of money or other resources in the expecta-
tion of reaping future benefits. For example,
an individual might purchase shares of stock
anticipating that the future proceeds from
the shares will justify both the time that her
money is tied up as well as the risk of the
investment. The time you will spend studying
this text (not to mention its cost) also is an
investment. You are forgoing either current
leisure or the income you could be earning
at a job in the expectation that your future
career will be sufficiently enhanced to justify
this commitment of time and effort. While
these two investments differ in many ways,
they share one key attribute that is central
to all investments: You sacrifice something
of value now, expecting to benefit from that
sacrifice later.
This text can help you become an informed
practitioner of investments. We will focus
on investments in securities such as stocks,
bonds, or options and futures contracts, but
much of what we discuss will be useful in the
analysis of any type of investment. The text will
provide you with background in the organiza-
tion of various securities markets; will survey
bod8237x_ch01_001-022.indd 1bod8237x_ch01_001-022.indd 1 2/15/08 2:41:31 PM2/15/08 2:41:31 PM
Revised Pages
2
implications as we begin the text. These implica-
tions will be fleshed out in much greater detail in
later chapters.
Finally, we conclude with an introduction to the
organization of security markets, the various play-
ers that participate in those markets, and a brief
overview of some of the more important changes
in those markets in recent years. Together, these
various topics should give you a feel for who the
major participants are in the securities markets as
well as the setting in which they act. We close with
an overview of the remainder of the text.
The material wealth of a society is ultimately determined by the productive capacity of its
economy, that is, the goods and services its members can create. This capacity is a function
of the real assets of the economy: the land, buildings, machines, and knowledge that can
be used to produce goods and services.
In contrast to such real assets are financial assets such as stocks and bonds. Such
securities are no more than sheets of paper or, more likely, computer entries and do not
contribute directly to the productive capacity of the economy. Instead, these assets are the
means by which individuals in well-developed economies hold their claims on real assets.
Financial assets are claims to the income generated by real assets (or claims on income
from the government). If we cannot own our own auto plant (a real asset), we can still buy
shares in General Motors or Toyota (financial assets) and, thereby, share in the income
derived from the production of automobiles.
While real assets generate net income to the economy, financial assets simply define the
allocation of income or wealth among investors. Individuals can choose between consum-
ing their wealth today or investing for the future. If they choose to invest, they may place
their wealth in financial assets by purchasing various securities. When investors buy these
securities from companies, the firms use the money so raised to pay for real assets, such
as plant, equipment, technology, or inventory. So investors’ returns on securities ultimately
come from the income produced by the real assets that were financed by the issuance of
those securities.
The distinction between real and financial assets is apparent when we compare the bal-
ance sheet of U.S. households, shown in Table 1.1 , with the composition of national wealth
in the United States, shown in Table 1.2 . Household wealth includes financial assets such
as bank accounts, corporate stock, or bonds. However, these securities, which are financial
assets of households, are liabilities of the issuers of the securities. For example, a bond
that you treat as an asset because it gives you a claim on interest income and repayment
of principal from General Motors is a liability of General Motors, which is obligated to
make these payments to you. Your asset is GM’s liability. Therefore, when we aggregate
over all balance sheets, these claims cancel out, leaving only real assets as the net wealth
of the economy. National wealth consists of structures, equipment, inventories of goods,
and land. 1
1
You might wonder why real assets held by households in Table 1.1 amount to $27,086 billion, while total real
assets in the domestic economy ( Table 1.2 ) are far larger, at $48,038 billion. One major reason is that real assets
held by firms, for example, property, plant, and equipment, are included as financial assets of the household
sector, specifically through the value of corporate equity and other stock market investments. Another reason is
that equity and stock investments in Table 1.1 are measured by market value, whereas plant and equipment in
Table 1.2 are valued at replacement cost.
1.1 REAL ASSETS VERSUS FINANCIAL ASSETS
bod8237x_ch01_001-022.indd 2bod8237x_ch01_001-022.indd 2 2/15/08 2:41:32 PM2/15/08 2:41:32 PM
Revised Pages
CHAPTER 1 The Investment Environment 3
We will focus almost exclusively
on financial assets. But you shouldn’t
lose sight of the fact that the successes
or failures of the financial assets we
choose to purchase ultimately depend
on the performance of the underlying
real assets.
Assets $ Billion % Total Liabilities and Net Worth $ Billion % Total
Real assets
Real estate $22,874 32.9% Mortgages $10,070 14.5%
Consumer durables 3,966 5.7 Consumer credit 2,413 3.5
Other 247 0.4 Bank and other loans 222 0.3
Total real assets $27,086 38.9% Security credit 310 0.4
Other 418 0.6
Total liabilities $13,432 19.3%
Financial assets
Deposits $ 6,629 9.5%
Life insurance reserves 1,174 1.7
Pension reserves 12,188 17.5
Corporate equity 5,391 7.7
Equity in noncorp.
business
7,553 10.9
Mutual fund shares 5,123 7.4
Debt securities 3,160 4.5
Other 1,305 1.9
Total financial assets 42,522 61.1 Net worth 56,176 80.7
Total $69,608 100.0% $69,608 100.0%
TA B L E 1.1
Balance sheet of U.S. households, 2007
Note: Column sums may differ from total because of rounding error.
Source: Flow of Funds Accounts of the United States, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, June 2007.
TA B L E 1.2
Domestic net worth
Assets $ Billion
Nonresidential real estate $ 9,549
Residential real estate 28,265
Equipment and software 4,498
Inventories 1,759
Consumer durables 3,966
Total $ 48,038
Note: Column sums may differ from total because of rounding error.
Source: Flow of Funds Accounts of the United States, Board of Governors of
the Federal Reserve System, June 2007.
CONCEPT
CHECK
1
Are the following assets real or financial?
a. Patents
b. Lease obligations
c. Customer goodwill
d. A college education
e. A $5 bill
bod8237x_ch01_001-022.indd 3bod8237x_ch01_001-022.indd 3 2/15/08 2:41:33 PM2/15/08 2:41:33 PM
Revised Pages
4 PART I Introduction
It is common to distinguish among three broad types of financial assets: fixed income,
equity, and derivatives. Fixed-income or debt securities promise either a fixed stream
of income or a stream of income that is determined according to a specified formula. For
example, a corporate bond typically would promise that the bondholder will receive a fixed
amount of interest each year. Other so-called floating-rate bonds promise payments that
depend on current interest rates. For example, a bond may pay an interest rate that is fixed
at 2 percentage points above the rate paid on U.S. Treasury bills. Unless the borrower
is declared bankrupt, the payments on these securities are either fixed or determined by
formula. For this reason, the investment performance of debt securities typically is least
closely tied to the financial condition of the issuer.
Nevertheless, fixed-income securities come in a tremendous variety of maturities and
payment provisions. At one extreme, the money market refers to debt securities that are
short term, highly marketable, and generally of very low risk. Examples of money market
securities are U.S. Treasury bills or bank certificates of deposit (CDs). In contrast, the
fixed-income capital market includes long-term securities such as Treasury bonds, as well
as bonds issued by federal agencies, state and local municipalities, and corporations. These
bonds range from very safe in terms of default risk (for example, Treasury securities) to
relatively risky (for example, high yield or “junk” bonds). They also are designed with
extremely diverse provisions regarding payments provided to the investor and protection
against the bankruptcy of the issuer. We will take a first look at these securities in Chapter
2 and undertake a more detailed analysis of the debt market in Part Four.
Unlike debt securities, common stock, or equity, in a firm represents an ownership
share in the corporation. Equityholders are not promised any particular payment. They
receive any dividends the firm may pay and have prorated ownership in the real assets of
the firm. If the firm is successful, the value of equity will increase; if not, it will decrease.
The performance of equity investments, therefore, is tied directly to the success of the firm
and its real assets. For this reason, equity investments tend to be riskier than investments in
debt securities. Equity markets and equity valuation are the topics of Part Five.
Finally, derivative securities such as options and futures contracts provide payoffs that
are determined by the prices of other assets such as bond or stock prices. For example, a
call option on a share of Intel stock might turn out to be worthless if Intel’s share price
remains below a threshold or “exercise” price such as $30 a share, but it can be quite valu-
able if the stock price rises above that level. 2 Derivative securities are so named because
their values derive from the prices of other assets. For example, the value of the call option
will depend on the price of Intel stock. Other important derivative securities are futures and
swap contracts. We will treat these in Part Six.
Derivatives have become an integral part of the investment environment. One use of
derivatives, perhaps the primary use, is to hedge risks or transfer them to other parties. This
is done successfully every day, and the use of these securities for risk management is so
commonplace that the multitrillion-dollar market in derivative assets is routinely taken for
granted. Derivatives also can be used to take highly speculative positions, however. Every
2
A call option is the right to buy a share of stock at a given exercise price on or before the option’s expiration
date. If the market price of Intel remains below $30 a share, the right to buy for $30 will turn out to be valueless.
If the share price rises above $30 before the option expires, however, the option can be exercised to obtain the
share for only $30.
1.2 A TAXONOMY OF FINANCIAL ASSETS
bod8237x_ch01_001-022.indd 4bod8237x_ch01_001-022.indd 4 2/15/08 2:41:34 PM2/15/08 2:41:34 PM
Revised Pages
CHAPTER 1 The Investment Environment 5
so often, one of these positions blows up, resulting in well-publicized losses of hundreds
of millions of dollars. While these losses attract considerable attention, they are in fact the
exception to the more common use of such securities as risk management tools. Deriva-
tives will continue to play an important role in portfolio construction and the financial
system. We will return to this topic later in the text.
In addition to these financial assets, individuals might invest directly in some real assets.
For example, real estate or commodities such as precious metals or agricultural products
are real assets that might form part of an investment portfolio.
We stated earlier that real assets determine the wealth of an economy, while financial assets
merely represent claims on real assets. Nevertheless, financial assets and the markets in
which they trade play several crucial roles in developed economies. Financial assets allow
us to make the most of the economy’s real assets.
The Informational Role of Financial Markets
In a capitalist system, financial markets play a central role in the allocation of capital
resources. Investors in the stock market ultimately decide which companies will live and
which will die. If a corporation seems to have good prospects for future profitability, inves-
tors will bid up its stock price. The company’s management will find it easy to issue new
shares or borrow funds to finance research and development, build new production facili-
ties, and expand its operations. The nearby box provides an illustration of this process. As
Google’s stock price has surged, it has been able to expand and initiate many new business
prospects. If, on the other hand, a company’s prospects seem poor, investors will bid down
its stock price. The company will have to downsize and may eventually disappear.
The process by which capital is allocated through the stock market sometimes seems
wasteful. Some companies can be “hot” for a short period of time, attract a large flow of
investor capital, and then fail after only a few years. But that is an unavoidable implica-
tion of uncertainty. It is impossible to predict with certainty which ventures will succeed
and which will fail. But the stock market encourages allocation of capital to those firms
that appear at the time to have the best prospects. Many smart, well-trained, and well-paid
professionals analyze the prospects of firms whose shares trade on the stock market. Stock
prices reflect their collective judgment.
Consumption Timing
Some individuals in an economy are earning more than they currently wish to spend. Oth-
ers, for example, retirees, spend more than they currently earn. How can you shift your
purchasing power from high-earnings periods to low-earnings periods of life? One way
is to “store” your wealth in financial assets. In high-earnings periods, you can invest your
savings in financial assets such as stocks and bonds. In low-earnings periods, you can sell
these assets to provide funds for your consumption needs. By so doing, you can “shift”
your consumption over the course of your lifetime, thereby allocating your consumption to
periods that provide the greatest satisfaction. Thus, financial markets allow individuals to
separate decisions concerning current consumption from constraints that otherwise would
be imposed by current earnings.
1.3 FINANCIAL MARKETS AND THE ECONOMY
bod8237x_ch01_001-022.indd 5bod8237x_ch01_001-022.indd 5 2/15/08 2:41:35 PM2/15/08 2:41:35 PM
Revised Pages
6
Allocation of Risk
Virtually all real assets involve some risk. When GM builds its auto plants, for example, it
cannot know for sure what cash flows those plants will generate. Financial markets and the
diverse financial instruments traded in those markets allow investors with the greatest taste
for risk to bear that risk, while other, less risk-tolerant individuals can, to a greater extent,
stay on the sidelines. For example, if GM raises the funds to build its auto plant by selling
both stocks and bonds to the public, the more optimistic or risk-tolerant investors can buy
shares of stock in GM, while the more conservative ones can buy GM bonds. Because the
bonds promise to provide a fixed payment, the stockholders bear most of the business risk
but reap potentially higher rewards. Thus, capital markets allow the risk that is inherent to
all investments to be borne by the investors most willing to bear that risk.
This allocation of risk also benefits the firms that need to raise capital to finance their
investments. When investors are able to select security types with the risk–return char-
acteristics that best suit their preferences, each security can be sold for the best possible
price. This facilitates the process of building the economy’s stock of real assets.
Separation of Ownership and Management
Many businesses are owned and managed by the same individual. This simple organiza-
tion is well-suited to small businesses and, in fact, was the most common form of business
organization before the Industrial Revolution. Today, however, with global markets and
large-scale production, the size and capital requirements of firms have skyrocketed. For
example, at the end of 2006 General Electric listed on its balance sheet about $75 billion
of property, plant, and equipment, and total assets of nearly $700 billion. Corporations
of such size simply cannot exist as owner-operated firms. GE actually has about 625,000
stockholders with an ownership stake in the firm proportional to their holdings of shares.
Such a large group of individuals obviously cannot actively participate in the day-to-
day management of the firm. Instead, they elect a board of directors that in turn hires and
supervises the management of the firm. This structure means that the owners and managers
of the firm are different parties. This gives the firm a stability that the owner-managed
firm cannot achieve. For example, if some stockholders decide they no longer wish to hold
GOOGLING FOR GOLD
With the news that shares of online search giant
Google Inc. (GOOG) had crossed the lofty $400-per-
share mark in November 2005, the world may have
witnessed something akin to the birth of a new finan-
cial planetary system. Given its market cap of $120
billion, double that of its nearest competitor, Yahoo!,
Google now has the gravitational pull to draw in a
host of institutions and company matchmakers unable
to resist the potential profit opportunities. Google
stock, with a price–earnings ratio of 70, represents
one of the richest dealmaking currencies anywhere.
That heft has attracted a growing galaxy of entrepre-
neurs, venture capitalists, and investment bankers, all
of whom are orbiting Google in the hopes of selling it
something—a new service, a start-up company, even a
new strategy—anything to get their hands on a little of
the Google gold.
The Google effect is already changing the delicate
balance in Silicon Valley between venture capitalists
(VCs) and start-up companies. Inste
本文档为【投资学1】,请使用软件OFFICE或WPS软件打开。作品中的文字与图均可以修改和编辑,
图片更改请在作品中右键图片并更换,文字修改请直接点击文字进行修改,也可以新增和删除文档中的内容。
该文档来自用户分享,如有侵权行为请发邮件ishare@vip.sina.com联系网站客服,我们会及时删除。
[版权声明] 本站所有资料为用户分享产生,若发现您的权利被侵害,请联系客服邮件isharekefu@iask.cn,我们尽快处理。
本作品所展示的图片、画像、字体、音乐的版权可能需版权方额外授权,请谨慎使用。
网站提供的党政主题相关内容(国旗、国徽、党徽..)目的在于配合国家政策宣传,仅限个人学习分享使用,禁止用于任何广告和商用目的。