Securities

Definition

Securities are financial instruments that represent an ownership position in a publicly-traded corporation (stock), a creditor relationship with a governmental body or a corporation (bond), or rights to ownership as represented by an option. They are tradeable assets that can be bought and sold in financial markets.

Related terms

Stock Market: A marketplace where shares of public companies are bought and sold, providing companies with access to capital in exchange for giving investors a slice of ownership.

Bond: A fixed income instrument that represents a loan made by an investor to a borrower, typically corporate or governmental, which pays periodic interest payments and returns the principal amount on maturity.

Options: Financial derivatives that provide the buyer the right, but not the obligation, to buy (call option) or sell (put option) an underlying asset at an agreed-upon price within a certain period of time