9.21 investments - chapter 4 - 公共基金及其他投资公司

Individual investors do not trade securities directly for their own accounts. Instead, they direct their funds to investment companies that purchase securities on their behalf.

个人投资者的一个人的资金太少，很多投资组合无法购买，也无法利用卖空等赚钱，还得自己管理股票组合，费时费力，所以投资公司应运而生。最重要的中是open-end investment companies，又叫公共基金。

1. 定义：Investment companies  are financial intermediaries that collect funds from individual 

investors and invest those funds in a potentially wide range of securities or other assets. 

作用：

• Record keeping and administration
• Diversification and divisibility
• Professional management
• Lower transaction costs

重要概念 NAV：The   value of each share  is called the  net asset value,  or NAV.  

Net asset value = Market value of assets minus liabilities/Shares outstanding

2. TYPES OF INVESTMENT COMPANIES

A)   Unit Investment Trusts are pools of money invested in a portfolio that is fixed for the life of the fund.

就是那种固定了投资组合的，例如就买某些债券或者某些股票的组合，定了之后以后都无法修改了，也不用人去管理。投资人从trustee买，过一段时间后，如果不想要了，就按照那个时刻的 NAV价格卖给trustee。因为卖回给trustee所以叫redeemable trust certificates。

trustee是信托人的意思，这个角色一般由bank or trust company(银行或者信托公司)来担任。

B)   Managed Investment Companies 

  B1) open-end:  Ready to redeem or issue shares at their net asset value( NAV).

  B2) close-end:  Do not redeem or issue shares.

其别就是investment companies是否会从投资者那赎回shares。

open-end 也叫mutual funds，是最主要的投资公司形式。也是这一章的重点。

C)   Commingled Funds：混合基金，意如其名,混合起来后可以降低平均的交易费，管理费等。

 A fund consisting of assets from several accounts that are blended together. 

D) Real Estate Investment Trusts ( REITs)   REITs invest in real estate or loans secured by real estate. 

投资不动产的

E)  Hedge Funds 对冲基金 An aggressively managed portfolio of investments that uses advanced investment strategies such as leveraged, long, short and derivative positions in both domestic and international markets with the goal of generating high returns (either in an absolute sense or over a specified market benchmark).

利用杠杆，卖空，金融衍生品等手段来获得高额的利润的基金。

一般是private partnerships ，所以受到SEC的监管也少很多。一般只对非常有钱的投资者或者金融机构开放。

3. Mutual Funds

Investment Policies: 每个公共基金都有自己的投资策略。按照投资对象的不同，可以将Mutual Funds分为以下9类

• Money Market Funds：投资短期的money market，包括commercial paper, repurchase agreements, or certificates of deposit.
• Equity Funds：投资stock
• Sector Funds：投资某一个领域，例如房地产，utility，有色金属等
• Bond Funds：投资债券的
• International Funds：投资国际股票市场的
• Balanced Funds：混合了各种securities，比较完整平衡的投资组合，一般不是stable的，组合不变化。
• Asset Allocation and Flexible Funds：和balanced funds一样也是stocks和bonds混合投资，但是权重会随时间修改，以求获得较大利益。
• Index Funds：按照某个index进行投资的，例如买S&P 500指数

How Funds Are Sold
Most mutual funds have an underwriter that has exclusive rights to distribute shares to investors.

4.   Costs  of investing in mutual funds

Fee classes

• operating expenses: 手续费including administrative expenses and advisory fees paid to the investment manager。mutual funds请投资公司来管理funds的管理费
• Front-End Load：买入时的费用，付给买股票给投资者的brokers
• Back-End Load：redemption fee，卖出时的费用
• 12b-1 Charges：和Front-End类似，付给brokers的。不同的funds可能同时收取或者只收取其中一个。The Securities and Exchange Commission allows the managers of socalled 12b-1 funds to use fund assets to pay for distribution costs such as advertising, promotional literature including annual reports and prospectuses, and, most important, commissions paid to brokers who sell the fund to investors.

Relationship  between Fees and Mutual Fund Returns

Rate of return = (NAV1 - NAV0 + Income and capital gain distributions)/NAV0

Late Trading  and   Market Timing 

Late Trading:  指的是在闭市之后第二天开市之前进行的交易。比如一个利好消息在4:00闭市之后发布的，利用Late Trading可以按照今天的NAV买入，明天一开市，价格就走高了，也就从中获利了。不过现在都限制Late Trading，因为这其实是损害了其他投资人的利益。

Market Timing：是指全球不同时区的交易所闭市时间不同，利用这个时差来做获利。和Late Trading一样。

5.   Taxation

税收是直接pass through到investor身上的。Funds不许要交税。

6.   Exchange-Traded Funds

Exchange-traded funds    (ETFs), first introduced in 1993, are offshoots of mutual funds that allow investors to trade index portfolios just as they do shares of stock. 使得可以像股票那样交易funds，除去了时间限制。传统的funds只有在当天的NAV结算出来后才能买入和卖出shares。而ETFs就是可以随时买进卖出了。