Investments: Analysis and Management, Second Canadian Edition

W. Sean Cleary

Charles P. Jones

INVESTMENTS:

Analysis and Management

Second Canadian Edition

Chapter 1

Understanding

Investments

Learning Objectives

• Define investment and discuss what it means to study investments.

• Explain why risk and return are the two critical components of all investing decisions.

• Outline the two-step investment decision process.

• Discuss key factors that affect the investment decision process.

Investments Defined

• Investments is the study of the process of committing funds to one or more assets

 Emphasis on holding financial assets and marketable securities

 Concepts also apply to real assets

 Foreign financial assets should not be ignored

Investment Objectives

• Primary Objectives

 Safety of principal

 Income

Growth of capital

• Secondary Objectives

 Liquidity

 Tax minimization

Investment Constraints

• Possible constraints for investors include:

 Legal

Moral / Ethical

Emotional – including investment knowledge and risk tolerance

Basic minimum income to be provided by the portfolio

Realism – an understanding that some objectives are unrealistic (e.g., high returns with low risk)

Other (e.g., illness, pending divorce, etc.)

Primary and Secondary Objectives

• Objectives and constraints must be related to the three primary investment objectives of safety , income , and growth , and to the secondary objectives of liquidity and tax minimization .

The importance of safety relates to: risk, market timing, inflation, return, and emotion

The importance of income relates to: taxation, return, risk, inflation, and basic minimum income

The importance of growth relates to: taxation, risk, return, market timing, and emotional considerations

Why Study Investments?

• Most individuals make investment decisions sometime

 Individuals need sound framework for managing and increasing wealth

• Essential part of a career in the field

 Security analyst, portfolio manager, investment advisor, financial planner, Chartered Financial

Analyst

Investment Decisions

• Underlying investment decisions: the tradeoff between expected return and risk

• Return: expected return is not usually the same as realized return

• Risk: the possibility that the realized return will be different than the expected return

The Tradeoff Between ER and Risk

• Investors manage risk at a cost – lower expected returns (ER)

• Any level of expected return and risk can be attained

ER

Bonds

Stocks

Risk-free Rate

Risk

RT

12

High

10

8

“Typical” Chart

RELATION RISQUE-RENDEME

RISK- EXPECTED RETURN RELATIONSHIPS

Options/Futures

Art objects

Coins and stamps

Real estate (commercial)

Common shares

Real estate (residential) Rendement

2

0

0

Treasury bills

2 4 6 Risk 8 10 12 High

The Investment Decision Process

• Two-step process:

Security analysis

• Necessary to understand security characteristics and applied to these securities to estimate their price or value

Portfolio management

• Selected securities viewed as a single unit

• How and when should it be revised?

• How should portfolio performance be measured?

Factors Affecting the Process

• Uncertainty in ex post returns dominates decision process

 Future unknown and must be estimated

• Foreign financial assets – opportunity to enhance return and/or reduce risk

• Investors must now cope with a changed investing environment

• Internet changes investments environment

• Institutional investors are important

• How efficient are financial markets in processing new information?

Corporate Governance

Main issues:

• The accountability of the Board of Directors and

Management

• A re-examination of accounting and auditing practices

• Management compensation arrangements such as executive stock option plans

• Disclosure requirements

• The effectiveness of existing regulatory bodies

Copyright

Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons Canada, Ltd. All rights reserved. Reproduction or translation of this work beyond that permitted by Access Copyright (The Canadian Copyright

Licensing Agency) is unlawful. Requests for further information should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley

& Sons Canada, Ltd. The purchaser may make back-up copies for his or her own use only and not for distribution or resale. The author and the publisher assume no responsibility for errors, omissions, or damages caused by the use of these programs or from the use of the information contained herein.