portfolio

Portfolio

A collection of investments, real and/or financial.

Portfolio

The set of open positions held by an investor. For example, if an investor owns shares in AT&T, GM, and bonds in Disney, one collectively refers to these as the investor's portfolio. Rational economic actors are expected to seek the highest possible return at the lowest possible risk. They do this by creating diversified portfolios, which spread risk out among several investments. See also: Portfolio Management.

portfolio

A group of investments. The more diversified the investments in a portfolio, the more likely the investor is to earn the same return as the market. See also diversification.

Portfolio.

If you own more than one security, you have an investment portfolio.

You build your portfolio by buying additional stock, bonds, annuities, mutual funds, or other investments. Your goal is to increase the portfolio's value by selecting investments that you believe will go up in price.

According to modern portfolio theory, you can reduce your investment risk by creating a diversified portfolio that includes different asset classes and individual securities chosen from different segments, or subclasses, of those asset classes. That diversification is designed to take advantage of the potential for strong returns from at least some of the portfolio's investments in any economic climate.

portfolio

1. a collection of FINANCIAL SECURITIES held by an investor. Typically an investor would want to hold a number of different financial securities to spread his risk, and would seek a mixture of them, some offering high short-term DIVIDEND payments with others offering long-term capital appreciation as their market prices rise. Investors can assemble their own portfolio of shares, or they can opt to buy into funds offered by UNIT TRUSTS, INVESTMENT TRUSTS and other INSTITUTIONAL INVESTORS. The latter medium enables investors to invest in a much wider range of shares than their own limited resources would otherwise permit since unit trusts etc ‘pool’ the savings of many thousands of investors. Unit trusts etc. typically offer a number of different types of funds to appeal to different groups of investors, for example, ‘growth funds’ which aim to achieve capital growth, and ‘income funds'which aim to secure high income returns to investors. Some funds are passively managed by fund operators who buy shares in companies comprising a selected share index, for example, the ‘Financial Times Stock Exchange (FTSE) – 100 Share Index (see TRACKER FUND), while other funds are actively managed by fund managers who buy and sell shares regularly in a wider range of companies in order to maximize growth or income returns. See PORTFOLIO THEORY, INVESTMENT, INDIVIDUAL SAVINGS ACCOUNT.
2. a collection of products marketed by a firm. See PRODUCT RANGE, PRODUCT-MARKET MATRIX, BOSTON MATRIX.

portfolio

the collection of FINANCIAL SECURITIES such as shares and bonds held by an investor. Typically, an investor would want to hold a number of different financial securities to spread his or her RISK and would seek a mixture of financial securities, some offering high short-term DIVIDEND payments with others offering long-term capital appreciation as their market prices rise significantly Additionally, investors may plan to hold various financial securities that have a particular MATURITY STRUCTURE so that they can achieve a predetermined pattern of cash flows.

Investors can assemble their own portfolio of shares or they can opt to buy into funds offered by UNIT TRUSTS, INVESTMENT TRUSTS and other INSTITUTIONAL INVESTORS. The latter medium enables investors to invest in a much wider range of shares than their own limited resources would otherwise permit since unit trusts, etc., ‘pool’ the savings of many thousands of investors. Unit trusts, etc., typically offer a number of different types of funds to appeal to different groups of investors: for example, ‘growth funds’, which aim to achieve capital growth, and ‘income funds’, which aim to secure high income returns to investors. Some funds are passively managed by fund operators who buy shares in companies comprising a selected share index, for example, the ‘Financial Times Stock Exchange (FTSE) - 100 Share Index (see TRACKER FUND), while other funds are actively managed by fund managers who buy and sell shares regularly in a wider range of companies in order to maximize growth or income returns. See PORTFOLIO THEORY, INVESTMENT, FOREIGN INVESTMENT, INDIVIDUAL SAVINGS ACCOUNT (ISA).

portfolio

A group of investment assets.