INVESTMENT INFORMATION LIBRARY

Please find below more information on Investment product information.

Investments
All Investment Products.

INVESTMENT PRODUCTS INFORMATION

We are often encouraged to invest our capital to make it grow. You are probably familiar with the fact that there are many types of investments – from shares, property (overseas and at home), ISAs, unit trusts, bonds...the list goes on.

For the purpose of this guide, we separate investment from trading. This is because, while trading (of such areas like foreign exchange, CFD's, Futures and even Spread Betting) is a way to invest, it differs from the type of mainstream investment we aim to explain here.

So, for this guide trading and investment are separated as follows:

Traders: aim to profit from short-term price fluctuations – they use technical analysis to predict market and price movements.

Investors: aim to profit from long term appreciation of their assets. They use fundamental analysis to predict long-term outlooks for assets.

Three Layers of Investment:

Rather than make the topic confusing, the easiest way to think of investments is to put them into three basic layers -

1. Asset classes:

In each investment you will have the underlying investment itself. This will fall into one of the four main asset classes. These are: Bonds, Shares, Property and Cash Deposits.

2. Pooled investments:

Pooling your investments means you are placing your money into one or more assets with other investors. There are various types of investment pools, including funds, trusts and bonds. We will explain them later in this guide. Pooling your assets is designed to spread your risk and even saves on some costs.

3. Tax wrappers:

Tax wrappers are like a safe coating around your investment which shields it from tax. You could also describe tax wrappers as tax breaks. Most commonly these are ISAs. They are subject to a set of strict rules and can be used directly around the underlying asset or a pooled investment.