Posts Tagged ‘stock’

Investment Companies

Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009

Investment companies sell shares to the public and invest the proceeds in a diversified portfolio of securities. Each share they sell represents a proportionate interest in a portfolio of securities. The securities purchased could be restricted to specific types of assets such as common stock, government bonds, corporate bonds, or money market instruments. The investment strategies followed by investment companies range from high-risk active portfolio strategies to low-risk passive portfolio strategies.
There are two types of managed investment companies: open-end funds and closed-end funds. An open-end fund, more popularly referred to as a mutual fund, continually stands ready to sell new shares to the public and to redeem its outstanding shares on demand at a price equal to an appropriate share of the value of its portfolio, which is computed daily at the close of the market. A mutual fund’s share price is based on its net asset value (NAV) per share, which is found by subtracting from the market value of the portfolio the mutual fund’s liabilities and then dividing by the number of mutual fund shares outstanding.
In contrast to mutual funds, closed-end funds sell shares like any other corporation and usually do not redeem their shares. Shares of closed-end funds sell on either an organized exchange, such as the New York Stock Exchange, or in the over-the-counter market. The price of a share in a closed-end fund is determined by supply and demand, so the price can fall below or rise above the net asset value per share.