The process of
portfolio selection that assumes that every rational
investor, at a given level of
risk, will accept only the largest expected
return. More specifically, mean-variance analysis attempts to account for risk and
expected return mathematically to help the investor find a portfolio with the maximum return for the minimum about of risk. A Markowitz efficient porfolio represents just that: the most expected return at a given amount of risk (sometimes excluding
zero risk).
Harry Markowitz first began developing this form of analysis in an article published in 1952 and received the Nobel prize for economics for his work in 1990. See also: Homogenous expectations assumption,
Markowitz efficient set of portfolios.