Jeffery Sparks 
Understanding the basics of stocks, bonds and investments will enable you to make better investment decisions. There are four basic categories of investments: stocks, bonds, commodities and real estate.
Stocks are investments that grant partial ownership in companies and pay investors a portion of earnings called dividends. They are traded through central exchanges.
Stocks
Stocks are an investment that grants you partial ownership in a corporation and allow you to earn dividends and vote at shareholder meetings. A company can issue either common or preferred stocks; preferred shares do not give voting rights but pay out dividends before common ones and receive priority when dissolving or liquidating an organization.
Investing in stocks can be risky, particularly during times when the market fluctuates rapidly. Before making their decisions, investors should carefully assess if they can survive market fluctuations over the long term and establish when their financial goals should be reached.
Stocks offer investors the potential for growth over time and can play a crucial role in creating a well-balanced portfolio. While considered riskier than bonds, they tend to provide higher returns. Trading stocks on stock exchanges is regulated to protect investors against fraudulent trading practices; investing in them may help build wealth while meeting goals such as retirement.
Bonds
As companies make money, a portion of it is returned to shareholders via dividend payments – this makes stocks an effective way of earning income; however, they may be riskier investments than bonds.
Bonds are loans investors make to companies and other entities, such as government departments. In return for this investment, the issuer of the bond promises a fixed return – typically in the form of interest. Investors can purchase them either directly from them or on secondary markets.
Bonds typically offer lower risk levels than stocks and higher interest rates than savings accounts, making them ideal for diversifying a portfolio and protecting it during stock market crashes and recessions. They may have low correlations to stocks but still experience price drops when the economy falters; hence why bonds should form the core of any well-diversified portfolio.
Money market instruments
Money market instruments are highly liquid debt securities with short maturities of one year or less that you can purchase directly or through money market mutual funds. Examples of such instruments include Treasury bills, certificates of deposit (CDs), commercial paper and repurchase agreements (“repo”). You can invest directly or through these mutual funds.
Money market instruments provide investors with a safe way to earn interest and meet their financial needs without incurring too much risk. Furthermore, they play a vital role in financial markets by helping governments, corporations, and banks raise short-term funds without creating inflationary trends. These investments also offer significant other advantages: their low correlation to stocks and bonds makes them an excellent way to protect funds during volatile markets, and are frequently used as collateral in mortgage-backed securities; additionally, these assets may even come at discounted prices from government-backed assets; plus they typically offer greater yield than savings accounts! Interest rates on money market instruments are regulated by the Reserve Bank of India.
Mutual funds
Individual stocks offer an effective means of building wealth over the long-term, but their investment is fraught with risk and requires extensive research. Mutual funds provide diversification and professional management for investors looking to increase wealth over time.
Mutual funds provide investors with multiple investment options, from stock (“equity funds”) and bond (“fixed-income funds”) to balanced funds combining both types. Mutual fund investment is an excellent way to diversify your assets while adding income; when funds earn a profit on investments they distribute the income as distributions back out to shareholders as cash or reinvest them to acquire more shares of their mutual fund.
Investors can select mutual funds based on investment style, company size or geography. Furthermore, active and passive funds are both options. Furthermore, low minimums and dollar cost averaging are all key features that could add a boost to any investor’s portfolio.
