Learn what financial instruments are, explore major types and asset classes, and understand how they work in investing, trading, and portfolio construction.

Ben is the former Retirement and Investing Editor for Forbes Advisor. With two decades of business and finance journalism experience, Ben has covered breaking market news, written on equity markets ...

Financial derivatives have greatly enhanced the range of tools available for managing financial risks. Currently, derivatives are widely used to mitigate and reallocate the financial risk related to ...

The derivatives market doesn’t deal with fungible assets. Instead, it’s a secondary market focused on the volatility of capital markets and assets. As the name implies, the financial products traded ...

The scale of derivatives held by major banks like JPMorgan Chase & Co., Citibank and Goldman Sachs, amounting to $203 trillion, has raised concerns about the potential risks these positions might pose ...

Derivatives, a special kind of investment, played a key role in the financial crisis and generated $20 billion for Wall Street last year. They are also central in President Obama's push for financial ...