There are many ways an individual can invest their money: education, real estate, art collecting, comic books, baseball cards, etc.; and securities.
Securities
Securities is the general term for financial instruments issued to raise money—typically by corporations and governments—or instruments whose values are derived from other securities.
Stocks, bonds, futures, options, mutual funds, and money market instruments are all securities.
Securities are "paper assets", the possession of which indicates ownership of an asset or financial claim. They are generally transferable, and many exchanges are devoted to the trading of securities.
