Needed a Document for FINANCIAL INSTRUMENTS? Related: Indian Financi...
A financial instrument is a monetary contract between parties. We can create, trade, or modify them. We can also settle them. A financial instrument may be evidence of ownership of part of something, as in stocks and shares. Bonds, which are contractual rights to receive cash, are financial instruments.
Financial Instrument
A financial instrument can represent ownership of something, a loan that an investor made to the asset’s owner, or a foreign currency.
Financial instrument – cash or derivative
There are two main types of financial instruments, derivative or cash instruments.
Derivative instruments
Derivative instruments are instruments whose worth we derive from the value and characteristics of at least one underlying entity. Assets, interest rates, or indexes, for example, are underlying entities.
Cash instruments
Cash instruments are instruments that the markets value directly.
Securities, which are readily transferable, for example, are cash instruments.
Deposits and loans, where both lender and borrower must agree on a transfer, are also cash instruments.