Funds can be divided into public offering and private offering according to whether they raise funds for the public, and securities investment funds (stocks), futures investment funds (futures contracts), monetary investment funds (foreign exchange), gold investment funds (gold) and FOF funds (fund investment funds, PE and VC funds) according to the main investment targets. REITs real estate investment trust (real estate investment fund, the subject matter of which is real estate), TOT trust of trust (trust investment fund, the subject matter of which is trust product) and hedge fund (also called arbitrage fund, the subject matter of which is arbitrage space). Many of the above-mentioned fund forms are in western countries, but in China, there is only such a concept, and there is no entity (private placement is possible because it is not limited by policies and the investment target is flexible).

The so-called funds in China should be called securities investment funds accurately, such as Dacheng, Huaxia, Jiashi and Bank of Communications Schroeder. These Public Offering of Fund are strictly supervised by the CSRC, and their investment direction and proportion are strictly restricted. Most of them manage tens of billions of dollars.

Private placement is strictly restricted in China, because it can easily become "illegal fund-raising". The difference between the two is whether to raise funds for the general public and whether the ownership of funds has been transferred. More than 50 people raise funds and transfer them to personal accounts, which is regarded as illegal fund-raising. Illegal fund-raising is a very serious economic crime that can be sentenced to death, such as Wu Ying in Zhejiang, Tang Wanxin in Delong and Madoff in the United States.

Private real estate investment funds (few now, such as Jincheng Capital and Xinghao Investment), private equity investment funds (that is, investing in the equity of unlisted companies, PE targeting IPO, such as CDH, Hony, KKR, Goldman Sachs, Carlyle and Han Hong) and private venture capital funds (that is, VC with high risks, such as Lenovo Investment, Softbank and IDG).

Dacheng, Jiashi, Huaxia and other fund companies in Public Offering of Fund are all securities investment funds, and they can only invest in stocks or bonds, but not in unlisted company equity, real estate or venture enterprises, while private equity funds can.