Question 1: Investing in a specific company.

Choose a company in a part of the world and domain where you feel at ease, and which has both shares on the stock market and also corporate bonds outstanding. Describe the company, consider the recent performance (e.g. five years) of the shares and the bond you have selected. That means that you have to research the price of the chosen bond and the share price five years ago and today.

You should probably use Morningstar as your source but you are not obliged to.

Had you invested 50/50 in the bond and the share, what would your average annual return over the last five years have been.

Complete your answer with a reflection on how you found the exercise (easy/difficult, interesting/rather a chore). We are not looking for a particular view - only that you have one.

Question 2: An investment strategy based on funds.

To answer this question you are to develop an investment strategy specifically for yourself, and as realistic as possible, and reflecting your view of macro-economics and its impact on financial markets.

First analyse your own situation and risk profile (character, life-style, time horizon, objectives, etc) and your macro-economic view, then reflect them ina portfolio of mutual funds or ETFs using examples and providers chosen from David Costa's book (but you can also use any mutual fund or ETF available in the Morningstar database).

Before selecting the investment vehicles you will need to determine your asset allocation and justify it. Normally five to seven mutual funds and ETFs funds will suffice for diversification.Bring an element of timing into your investment plan.

You are not obliged to one type over the other; make you choices and say why. That will require you to describe the funds. You should also wish to reflect your own view on likely global economic developments.

Question 3: How will you use your nestegg?

Assume that you have built up funds from the portfolio in Question 2. How might you use such a nestegg in your retirement?

N.B. As this is an academic paper, you must use the Harvard referencing system. You will be penalized for inaccurate, missing and erroneous referencing. If you are unsure on how to reference using the Harvard referencing system please review the video tutorial at
http://stream.cumbria.ac.uk/ap/ALES/player.html