PREFACE.

Investment is a long-term concept. An investment is a commitment of funds made in

expectation of some positive return. The main motive of investment is to earn returns. It
is the basic motivating factor behind all investments and the desire is to earn better
returns. When investment is done in one single security it bears the risk and return
features of that particular security only. When it is done in a number of securities it forms
a portfolio and thereby it bears the aggregate risk and return features of the various
components of the portfolio. A general perception is that risk in a portfolio is less as
compared to that in an individual security. Also the returns in a portfolio are
comparatively high and stable. In the present day the investor finds a large number of
avenues where he may invest hence the decisions regarding portfolio are of great
importance. This leads to the need for an intensive analysis of various opportunities of
investment and then find out where to invest, when to invest, how much to invest and for
what duration to invest.

This project mainly aims to study all the available for an investor and drawing a basic
comparison among them and thereby deriving results that would be useful to plan an
ideal portfolio.