What is a Collateralized Debt Obligation (CDO)? A Collateralized Debt Obligation (CDO) is a synthetic investment product that represents different loans bundled together and sold by the lender in the market. The holder of the collateralized debt obligation can, in theory, collect the borrowed amount from the original borrower at the end of the loan…
What is Stock Valuation? Every investor who wants to beat the market must master the skill of stock valuation. Essentially, stock valuation is a method of determining the intrinsic value (or theoretical value) of a stock. The importance of valuing stocks evolves from the fact that the intrinsic value of a stock may be different…
What is Mispricing? Mispricing causes a divergence between the market price of a security and the fundamental value of that security. The law of one price states that the market price of a security is equal to the present discounted value of all cash flows generated by the security. However, it is not always the…
What are Commodity Linked Securities? Commodity linked securities are investment instruments or securities that are linked to one or more commodity prices. Unlike commodities, which provide no income to the owner, commodity linked securities usually give some payout to holders. Commodity Linked Securities – Bonds Commodty linked bonds are securities offered by governments whose yield…
What are Hybrid Securities? Hybrid securities are investment instruments that combine the features of pure equities and pure bonds. These securities tend to offer a higher return than pure fixed income securities such as bonds but a lower return than pure variable income securities such as equities. They are considered less riskier than pure variable…
What is a Fairly Valued Security? A security is said to be fairly valued if its market price is equal to its true value. Since the true value of a security is usually not known, the question of whether a security is fairly valued lacks a definite answer. Most securities are valued using some variation…
What is the Local Expectations Theory? In finance and economics, the Local Expectations Theory is a theory that suggests that the returns of bonds with different maturities should be the same over the short-term investment horizon. Essentially, the local expectations theory is one of the variations of the pure expectations theory, which assumes that the…
What is a Swaption? A swaption (also known as a swap option) is an option contract that grants its holder the right but not the obligation to enter into a predetermined swap contract. In return for the right, the holder of the swaption must pay a premium to the issuer of the contract. Swaptions typically…
What is Growth Equity? Growth equity (also known as growth capital or expansion capital) is a type of investment opportunity in relatively mature companies that are going through some transformational event in their lifecycle with potential for some dramatic growth. Uses of Growth Equity Growth capital is utilized by businesses to subsidize the expansion of…
What is an Embedded Option? An embedded option is a provision in a financial security (typically in bonds) that provides an issuer or holder of the security a certain right but not an obligation to perform some actions at some point in the future. The embedded options exist only as a component of financial security…
