An investment company is a company whose main business is holding securities of other companies purely for investment purposes. The investment company invests money on behalf of its shareholders who in turn share in the profits and losses.
In United States securities law, there are at least four types of investment companies:
- Open-End Management Investment Companies (mutual funds)
- Closed-End Management Investment Companies (closed-end funds)
- Hedge Funds
- UITs (unit investment trusts)
A fifth and lesser-known type of investment company under the Investment Company Act of 1940 is a Face-Amount Certificate Company.
Also popular are private investment funds, which are simply private companies that make investments in stocks or bonds, but are limited to under 100 investors, are private and are not regulated by the SEC. These funds are often composed of very wealthy investors.
Famous quotes containing the words investment and/or company:
“There is something fascinating about science. One gets such wholesale returns of conjecture out of such a trifling investment of fact.”
—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)
“Is not disease the rule of existence? There is not a lily pad floating on the river but has been riddled by insects. Almost every shrub and tree has its gall, oftentimes esteemed its chief ornament and hardly to be distinguished from the fruit. If misery loves company, misery has company enough. Now, at midsummer, find me a perfect leaf or fruit.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)