You've probably heard of mortgage-backed securities (they hit it big around 2007). They involve bundling a bunch of mortgage loans together and selling them as a security.
An investor can buy an MBS and make money on a group of mortgages. The securities allow people to invest in mortgages without having to loan money to homeowners. Meanwhile, they allow banks to securitize and sell off some of their risk. And because they include a bunch of mortgages, they offer some diversification (unless the entire market collapses).
A Financial Asset Securitization Investment Trust works on a similar premise. Except in the case of a FASIT, the security isn't backed by long-term mortgage loans. Instead, the debts getting securitized include shorter-maturity loans with collateral other than a home (or sometimes with no collateral at all).
FASITs might bundle together car loans or personal loans. Or the trusts could include no-collateral debt, like those from credit card companies. The goal again is to allow the selling of risk by the companies issuing the debt, and to provide a new type of investment for potential buyers.
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Finance: What is a Hard Asset?12 Views
Finance allah shmoop What is Ah hard asset Yeah It
takes a lot of hard work to get an asset
like that Okay So hard asset is just one that
you can bang on touch Engage with cell Alright examples
Oil it's Hard asset gold Hard of vintage nineteen Fifty
seven Ferrari with beige leather interior hard four thousand head
of longhorn cattle in texas A commercial building in the
best part of town All of these arm or less
commodities Hard assets Well okay Okay The categories Rare cars
art coins stamps stuff like that that's where they fit
So what do you care if something is ah hard
asset or a soft one Well most or all hard
assets are commodities and they generally do very well in
periods of very high inflation when you know stocks were
getting crushed And yeah the feds raising rates appoint a
quarter now forever Well equities and bonds will get crushed
Commodities well generally keep up with the spike in prices
causing the fed raised rates in the first place So
they're a good hedge for most investment portfolios And not
all of them are great forever like check out riel
Inflation adjusted oil prices the last few decades you had
not a good run Most not all do well though
an oil will likely have its day in the sun
again At some point you lan When in doubt remember
what kim kardashian and warren buffett said A good asset
is hard to find and a hard asset is good
to find But we won't tell you who said which
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