"Available for sale" is a classification of securities that represents the middle ground between two other types. It includes debt and equity that a company could intend to hold a long time, but is able to sell earlier if they choose to.
The other two classifications are "held for trading," which are purchased with the goal to sell in the short term, and "held to maturity," which the investor plans to hold until it reaches its maturity date. These categories affect how the security shows up on an income statement and balance sheet. Usually the available-for-sale securities are recorded at fair value because they are considered short term.
Related or Semi-related Video
Finance: What is a Commingled Fund?7 Views
Finance allah shmoop What is a co mingled fund What
is it Well it's A bunch of assets which used
to be single having come to the finance party stag
now being put together in one large tinder financial group
Well for that finance party the host had to make
the requisite ice sculpture Of course if that sculpture was
done to entertain on ly one set of assets well
it's relative cost was probably aye But if it covered
one hundred different accounts all invited to the party to
ogallala the great evolved wonder Well then the cost of
that ice sculpture per visitor is a sum one hundredth
of what it would have been Otherwise we'll co mingled
Funds exist typically when a family is successful and disparate
or separated they don't really talk to each other a
whole lot Joe over here made his money from a
shoe factory He sold brother bob over here Made his
money from his special head shine serum And sister suzy
over here made her money from her plastic surgery clinic
Or uh or what That was but well here's The
breakdown By combining their assets they sort of become a
kind of hybrid mutual funds like a family mutual fund
only they don't have to suffer all the regulatory filings
of being a mutual fund that hire their own professional
manager to run the co mingled assets think retired money
manager or someone in the broker dealer world who pretends
they know what they espouse or market or you know
they're shizzle in co mingled funds the family khun draw
margin against those funds like borrow against their own money
for really cheap prices Sigan sell stocks short which you
can't do in a mutual fund I'ii betting they'll go
down just like margin you can do in a mutual
fund and they could buy and sell stock options and
bond options in their funds and a bunch of other
freedoms they have Well that just buying a vanilla mutual
fund would not have given them so Wow with all
that freedom what can't co mingled funds d'oh Well sure
won't protect you from frostbite if that ice sculpture you
too thirsty just a heads up co mingled funds they're 00:02:11.57 --> [endTime] fun home
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