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:
(1) According to whether the fund unit can be increased or redeemed, it 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.
(2) 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.
(3) According to the different investment risks and returns, it can be divided into growth funds, income funds and balanced funds.
(4) According to different investors, it can be divided into 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 American Museum of Finance that the Graham-Newman Partnership Fund in the 1920s was the earliest known hedge fund, but other funds may appear 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.