What are securities?

Securities are broadly defined as financial instruments that can represent various types of ownership positions, creditor relationships, or rights to ownership. This encompasses a wide range of financial assets, including stocks, which signify ownership in a company, bonds that represent a creditor relationship (where the bondholder lends money to the issuer), options, and other derivatives that may provide rights to an underlying asset. This definition reflects the diverse nature of financial markets, where different types of securities serve various purposes for investors and issuers alike, facilitating capital raising, investment, and risk management.

The other options are too narrow in scope. For example, focusing solely on stocks and bonds fails to capture the full range of securities available in the market, while restricting the definition to only financial derivatives ignores other important asset classes. Likewise, the notion of government-issued financial certificates is an overly specific category that does not encompass the full spectrum of securities, which can be issued by private entities as well as governments.