Funds have broad and narrow definitions. Fund in a broad sense is the general name of institutional investors, including trust and investment funds, unit trust funds, provident funds, insurance funds, retirement funds and funds of various foundations. Funds in the existing securities market, including closed-end funds and open-end funds, have the characteristics of income function and value-added potential. From the accounting point of view, capital is a narrow concept, which refers to funds with specific purposes and uses. Because the investors of government agencies and institutions do not require investment returns and investment recovery, but require funds to be used for designated purposes in accordance with the law or the wishes of the investors, funds are formed.
The funds we are talking about now usually refer to securities investment funds.
securities investment funds
Securities investment fund refers to a collective investment method that collects the funds of many investors through the sale of fund shares to form independent assets, which are managed by fund custodians and fund managers and share the benefits and risks of securities investment in a combined way.
Securities investment fund is an indirect way of securities investment. By issuing fund shares, fund management companies concentrate investors' funds, which are managed by fund custodians (that is, qualified banks) and managed and used by fund managers to invest in financial instruments such as stocks and bonds, and then * * * bear the investment risks and share the benefits. According to different standards, securities investment funds can be divided into different types:
According to whether fund units can be increased or redeemed, they can be divided into open-end funds and closed-end funds. Open-end funds are not listed and traded, but are generally purchased and redeemed by banks, and the fund scale is not fixed; Closed-end funds have a fixed duration, and the fund size is fixed during the duration. Generally listed on the stock exchange, investors buy and sell fund shares through the secondary market.
Securities investment funds are called "mutual funds" in the United States, "unit trust funds" in Britain and China SAR, and "securities investment trust funds" in Japan and Taiwan Province Province.
Securities investment fund is a kind of collective investment and financial management method with shared interests and risks. That is, by issuing fund units, investors' funds are concentrated, managed by fund custodians (usually reputable banks), managed and used by fund managers (namely fund management companies), and invested in financial instruments such as stocks and bonds. While enjoying the income from securities investment, fund investors should also bear the risks brought by investment losses. The funds in China are all contract funds for the time being, which is a trust investment method.
investment fund
General funds mainly invest in large-cap blue-chip stocks, and when calculating the Shanghai Composite Index, large-cap blue-chip stocks also account for a great weight, so the decline and rise of funds are generally related to the decline and rise of the Shanghai Composite Index.
However, it is different for different funds. Some funds are closely related to the Shanghai Composite Index, while others are less related to the Shanghai Composite Index. Some funds can even rise when the market falls, depending on what stocks the fund holds.
Investment funds originated in Britain, but prevailed in the United States. After the First World War, the United States replaced Britain as the new hegemon of the world economy, and jumped from a capital importing country to a capital exporting country. With the rapid growth of American economy, the increasingly complex economic activities make it more and more difficult for some investors to judge the economic trend. In order to effectively promote foreign trade and foreign investment, the United States began to introduce the investment trust fund system. 1926 The Massachusetts Financial Services Company in Boston established the Massachusetts Investment Trust Company, which became the first modern mutual fund in the United States. In the following years, the fund experienced its first glorious period in the United States. By the end of the 1920s, the total assets of all closed-end funds had reached $2.8 billion, while the total assets of open-end funds were only $6,543.8+$400 million, but the growth rate of the latter was higher than that of closed-end funds. In the 1920s, the total asset value increased by more than 20% every year, and the growth rate of 1927 exceeded 100%.
However, just as American investors were immersed in the optimism of "eternal prosperity", the global stock market crash of 1929 dealt a heavy blow to the newly emerging American fund industry. With the global economic downturn, most investment companies have closed down, and the rest are unsustainable. But in comparison, the loss of closed-end funds is greater than that of open-end funds. The financial crisis reduced the total assets of American investment funds by about 50%. Since then, the securities industry has been at a low ebb throughout the 1930s. Faced with the shortage of funds and low industrial productivity caused by the Great Depression, people lost confidence in investment, and with the outbreak of the Second World War, the investment fund industry once stopped.
After the crisis, in order to protect the interests of investors, the U.S. government enacted the securities law of 1933 and the securities trading law of 1934, followed by the investment company law of 1940 and the investment consultant law specifically for investment funds. The Investment Company Law specifies the legal elements of the composition and management of investment funds in detail, which provides investors with complete legal protection and lays a good legal foundation for the rapid development of investment funds in the future.
After World War II, the American economy resumed its strong growth momentum and investor confidence quickly recovered. Under the strict legal protection of investment funds, especially open-end funds are active again, and the fund scale is increasing year by year. Since 1970s, American investment funds have exploded. From 1974 to 13 of 1987, the scale of investment funds increased from $64 billion to $700 billion. At the same time, the American fund industry has also broken through the restriction of investing only in common stock and corporate bonds for more than half a century, and launched money market funds and Federal Reserve funds at 197 1; Municipal bond funds and long-term bond funds began to appear in1977; The tax-free money fund first appeared in1979; International bond fund launched 1986. By the end of 1987, there were more than 2,000 different funds in the United States, which were held by nearly 25 million people. Due to the variety of investment funds, the investment focus of various funds is scattered. During the 1987 stock market crash, the total assets of American investment funds not only did not decrease, but increased in number.
In the early 1990s, about 80% of the new capital injected into American stock market came from funds, and the ratio of 1992 reached 96%. From 1988 to 1992, the proportion of investment funds in the entire US stock market rose sharply from 5% to 35%. By 1993, in NYSE, individual investment only accounts for 20% of the stock market value, while funds account for 55%. By the end of 1997, there were about $7.5 trillion in fund assets in the world, including about $4 trillion in American funds, which exceeded the total savings deposits of American commercial banks. From 1990 to 1996, the growth rate of investment funds is 2 18%. During this period, more and more institutional investors with huge capital, including bank trust departments, trust companies, insurance companies, pension funds and various consortia or foundations, began to invest heavily in investment funds. At present, America has become the most developed country in the fund industry in the world.