Abstract
The article is devoted to one of the objects of civil relations – financial instruments. In modern society, financial instruments are needed for profitable business management, they play an important role in making strategic decisions, optimizing financial processes and ensuring stability and economic growth. In addition, financial instruments allow you to predict and control income and expenses, manage risks, attract investments and carry out financial transactions. In this regard, the authors in the article point to the need to introduce into practice financial instruments that increase the investment activity of business entities, their competitiveness, and in general the national economy. In the article, the authors provide definitions of financial instruments given by foreign and domestic scientists, definitions specified in normative legal acts and international documents. The authors of the article point to such basic features of financial instruments as: the ability to generate future cash flows, the ability to trade in organized and unorganized markets, the ability to contain monetary value, and have a legal form in the form of a contract. At the same time, in the article, the authors identify the advantages of financial instruments, which consist in reducing risk, obtaining short-term profits, mobilizing sources of financing and facilitating financial transactions. The authors draw some conclusions on the topic and claim that there are two types of financial instruments: primary and derivative. Primary financial instruments are financial instruments that involve the purchase-sale or delivery-acquisition of a certain financial asset, which leads to mutual financial requirements. A derivative financial instrument is an agreement under which a monetary settlement will be made between its parties at a future price in the future.