Short Positions U.S. Stock Splits Cdn. Stock Graphing Index Graphing Free Stock Research Allocation Manager Mobile Access Broker Link Markets Open up a brokerage account with one of our brokerage partners and get trading quickly. Find the best research available on over 6,000 stocks using the TempestDirect survey of the most influential analysts in the world. Examples of equity investments include stocks, real estate, precious metals, and even paintings and antiques.
Some equity investments can generate income, as in the case of dividends from stocks.
The risk, of course, is that the value of an equity investment won't rise, or will perhaps even go down. In order to compensate for this risk, equity investments have traditionally had to provide at least the prospect of better returns than fixed-income investments such as bonds. That's not to say that equity investments always outperform other investments. During the 80's and 90's bonds and bond funds regularly matched or surpassed the returns from equities. The Ups and Downs Equity returns can vary dramatically from year to year, and different types of equities involve different levels of risk.