A security (belonging to the category of financial assets) that is issued by other entities such as shares, bonds and other investment instruments/ products that are acquired and held for the purpose of obtaining an economic benefit either from capital appreciation (value growth/ price increase) of the security or from interest or dividends paid by the issuer. An investment security could be classified either as a debt security or an equity security or a combination of both (a hybrid security).

By nature, investment securities are marketable and come with an investment grade (generally, not speculative).