投资学经典Investments by Bodie Kane Marcus

Zhipeng Yan 同学总结的学习精要

复习巩固考试的利器

Chapter One: The Investment Environment

I. Real assets versus financial assets

1. The material wealth of a society is determined ultimately by the productive capacity of its economy, which is a function of the real assets of the economy: the land, buildings, knowledge, and machines that are used to produce goods and the workers whose skills are necessary to use those resources.

2. Financial assets, like stocks or bonds, contribute to the productive capacity of the economy indirectly, because they allow for separation of the ownership and management of the firm and facilitate the transfer of funds to enterprise with attractive investment opportunities. Financial assets are claims to the income generated by real assets.

3. Real vs. Financial assets:

a. Real assets produce goods and services, whereas financial assets define the allocation of income or wealth among investors.

b. They are distinguished operationally by the balance sheets of individuals and firms in the economy. Whereas real assets appear only on the asset side of the balance sheet, financial assets always appear on both sides of the balance sheet. Your financial claim on a firm is an asset, but the firm’s issuance of that claim is the firm’s liability. When we aggregate over all balance sheets, financial assets will cancel out, leaving only the sum of real assets as the net wealth of the aggregate economy.

c. Financial assets are created and destroyed in the ordinary course of doing business. E.g. when a loan is paid off, both the creditor’s claim and the debtor’s obligation cease to exist. In contrast, real assets are destroyed only by accident or by wearing out over time.

II. Financial markets and the economy

1. Smoothing consumption: “Store” (e.g. by stocks or bonds) your wealth in financial assets in high earnings periods, sell these assets to provide funds for your consumption in low earnings periods (say, after retirement).

2. Allocation of risk: virtually all real assets involve some risk (so do financial assets). If a person is uncertain about the future of GM, he can choose to buy GM’s stock if he is more risk-tolerant, or he can buy GM’s bonds, if he is more conservative.

3. Separation of ownership and management: Let professional managers manage the firm. Owners can easily sell the stocks of the firm if they don’t like the incumbent management team or “police” the managers through board of directors (“stick”) or use compensation plans tie the income of managers to the success of the firm (“carrot”). In some cases, other firms may acquire the firm if they observe the firm is underperforming (market discipline).