Capital Markets and Investment Performance Overview Suppose you find a great investment opportunity, but you lack the cash to take advantage of it. This is the classic problem of financing.
Securities are nothing more than promises of future payment.
They are initially issued through financial intermediaries such as investment banks , which underwrite the offering and work to sell the securities to the public. Once they are sold, securities can often be re-sold. There is a secondary market for many corporate securities. Securities come in a bewildering variety of forms - there are more types of securities than there are breeds of cats and dogs, for instance. They range from relatively straightforward to incredibly complex.