Fund, in English, refers to a certain amount of funds set up for a certain purpose. It mainly includes trust and investment funds, provident funds, insurance funds, retirement funds and funds of various foundations.
From the accounting point of view, capital is a narrow concept, which refers to funds with specific purposes and uses. The fund we are talking about mainly refers to the securities investment fund.
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 traded on the market (as the case may be), but are purchased and redeemed by banks, brokers and fund companies, and the fund scale is not fixed; Closed-end funds have a fixed duration and are generally listed and traded on the stock exchange. Investors buy and sell fund shares through the secondary market.
According to different organizational forms, it can be divided into corporate funds and contractual funds. A fund is established by issuing fund shares to establish an investment fund company, which is usually called a corporate fund; The establishment of fund managers, fund custodians and investors through fund contracts is usually called contractual funds. China's securities investment funds are all contractual funds.
According to the difference of investment risk and income, it can be divided into growth fund, income fund and balanced fund.
According to the different investment objects, it can be divided into four categories: bond funds, stock funds, money funds and hybrid funds.
It is still uncertain which is the earliest hedge fund. During the great bull market in the United States in the 1920s, there were countless such investment tools specifically for the rich. One of the most famous is the Graham Newman Partnership Fund founded by Benjamin Graham and Jerry Newman.
In 2006, Warren Buffett declared in a letter to the magazine of American Financial Museum that Graham Newman Partnership Fund in the 1920s was the earliest known hedge fund, but other funds may have appeared earlier.
In the economic recession of 1969- 1970 and the stock market crash of 1973- 1974, many early funds suffered heavy losses and closed down one after another. In 1970s, hedge funds usually focused on one strategy, and most fund managers adopted the long-short stock model. During the economic recession in 1970s, hedge funds were once ignored. It was not until the late 1980s that several successful funds were reported in the media before they returned to people's sight.