Understanding of Investment & Investment decision process

Some Definitions Investment: An investment is the current commitment of money or other resources in the expectation of reaping future benefits. (Kane, Bodie and Marcus 2005)

Definitions Generally, “investments” refers to financial assets and in particular to marketable securities. Financial assets are paper or electronic claims on some issuer, such as the government or a company. Marketable securities financial assets that are easily and cheaply tradable in organized markets Real assets are tangible assets such as gold, silver, diamonds, real estate.

Definitions Speculation: Act of trading in an asset, or conducting transaction, that has significant risk of losing most or all of initial outlay, in expectation of substantial gain.

Difference Between Investment and Speculation Long term planning (at least one year) Low or moderate risk. Low or moderate rate of return. Investment decisions are based on fundamentals. Investors leveraged its own funds. Speculation Short term Planning (few days or months) High Risk. High rate of return. Decisions are based on hearsay and market psychology. Resort to borrowed funds.

Why to invest? Investment increases future consumption possibilities By foregoing consumption today and investing the savings, investors expect to increase their future consumption possibilities by increasing their wealth

If we do not invest, then? If we do not invest, then? If we have savings and we do not invest, we can’t earn anything on our savings. Second, the purchasing power of cash diminishes in inflation This means that if savers do not invest their savings, they will not only lose possible return on their savings, but will also lose value of their money due to inflation

But investment has problems Investment has the following three problems: A. Sacrifice While investing, investor delay their current consumption (delaying consumption is kind of sacrifice) B. Inflation - Investment loses value in periods of inflation C. Risk - giving your money to someone else involves risk

Compensation to investors Due to the three problems, investors will not invest until they are compensated for these problems Required rate of return = compensation for (sacrifice , inflation, risk) RRR= opportunity cost + risk premium

Understanding the investment decision process The basis of all investment decisions is to earn return and assume risk By investing, investors expect to earn a return (expected return)

Expected return and risk Realized returns(actual return) might be more or less than the expected return The chance that the actual return on an investment will be different from the expected return is called risk This way t-bills has no risk as the expected return and actual return are the same But actual returns on common stock have greater chances of deviating from expected return and hence have high risk

The expected risk-return trade-off

The expected risk-return trade-off The expected risk-return is depicted in the graph The line from RFR shows risk-return relationship of different investment alternatives. It shows that at zero level of risk, investor can earn risk free rate (RFR) which is equal to the rate on t-bills To earn a little higher return than the risk free rate, investors can invest in corporate bonds, but the investors will have to take some risk as well

Ex-ante and ex-post risk-return To earn even higher return than on corporate bonds, investor can invest in common stocks, but the risk is also high The risk return trade-off depicted in the graph in ex-ante i.e. before the fact or before the investment is made Ex post (after fact or actual) trade-off may be positive, flat or even negative

Different approaches to investment decision making Fundamental Approach: Believed that there is an intrinsic value of a security that can be company, industry and economy. Psychological Approach: This approach based on the premises that stock prices are guided by the emotions. It is more important to analyse that how investor tend to behave as the market is swept by the waves of optimism and pessimism.

Different approaches to investment decision making Academic Approach: Suggest that: -Stock market is efficient in reacting quickly and rationally hence it reflects intrinsic value fairly well. -Stock price behavior correspond to the random walk, hence past price behavior can not be used to predict the future price. - There is positive relationship between risk and return.

Different approaches to investment decision making Electric Approach: This approach draws on all the three approaches. -Fundamental analysis is helpful in establishing basic standard benchmarks. - Technical analysis is useful in broadly gauging the mood of the investor. - there is a strong correlation between risk and return.

Steps in the decision process Traditionally, the investment decision process has been structured using two-steps: Security analysis Portfolio management

Security Analysis Security analysis: this is the first part of investment decision process It involves the analysis and valuation of individual securities To analyze securities, it is important to understand the characteristics of the various securities and the factors that affect them Then valuation model is applied to find out their value or price

Security Analysis Value of a security is a function of estimated future earnings from the security and the risk attached For securities valuation, investors must deal with economy, industry or the individual company Both the expected return and risk must be estimated keeping in view the economic, market or company related factors

Portfolio Management The second major component of the decision processes is portfolio management After securities have been analyzed and valued, portfolio of selected securities is made Once a portfolio is made, it is managed with the passage of time For management, there can be two approaches

Portfolio Management Approaches to portfolio management: A. Passive investment strategy B. Active investment strategy In Passive Strategy, investors make few changes in the portfolio so that transactions costs, time and search costs are minimum In Active Strategy, investors believe that they can earn better returns by actively making changes in the portfolio

Common Errors in Investment Decision Making Inadequate comprehension of return and risk. Investor do not has correct understanding of risk & return and misled by: -Tall and unjustified claims made by people. -Exceptional performance of some portfolios due to fortuitous factors. -promises made by the tipsters, operators etc.

Common Errors in Investment Decision Making Investment policy is not clearly defined -Investment policy and risk disposition is not clearly spelled out. -conservative investors become aggressive when the market is bullish. -Aggressive investor become over cautious in bearish market.

Common Errors in Investment Decision Making Naïve exploration of the past. -Investor is inexperienced and excessively rely on the past Cursory of decision making. - Decision are taken on tips and fads rather than on thoughtful assessment. - Risks are not considered as greed overpower. - Try to follow bandwagon decisions due to lake of confidence in their own judgment.

Common Errors in Investment Decision Making Stock switching - Irrational start-and-stop. -Entry (after the market advance has long been underway) -Exit (after a long period of stagnation and decline) High Cost Love for a cheap stock -Cost of transaction is ignored in the greed of quick profits

Common Errors in Investment Decision Making Over and Under-diversification -Over diversification caused difficulties and excessive cost in portfolio management. -Under diversification exposes to risk. Wrong attitude towards profit and losses - Investor try to dilute the loses by averaging the price of its holdings. -Try to sell when the prices more or less equal to holding price even there are chances of further increase.