Читать книгу Alternative Investments - Hossein Kazemi - Страница 19

Structures are an essential concept in understanding the nature of an investment; however, they are not necessarily a defining feature of alternative investments. For example, can we view an investment as an alternative investment if it is substantially affected by a particular number of these aspects? The answer is no. Some alternative investments, such as timberland, have minimal influences from structures. Typically, the cash flows of the underlying timberland are not substantially altered by structures as they pass from the underlying real assets to the ultimate investor. On the other hand, investments such as equity derivatives and interest rate derivatives can be heavily structured and regulated and yet be considered in many cases to be traditional investments.

The concept of the five structures is designed to help us understand and analyze investment products but not necessarily to define classes of securities. The context of these five structures can help identify an investment's distinguishing characteristics. Structures help explain why some investments offer different return characteristics than others and why some investments require different methods of analysis than others; these topics are covered in the next two sections.