financial portfolio management

Financial portfolio management is one of the most effective tools for the contemporary investor to prevent and minimize risk in investing while maximizing returns. In fact, a managed portfolio can very significantly reduce the risks while optimizing returns. Here comes in financial portfolio management – a strategic plan that helps an investor optimize his portfolio to achieve specific financial goals.

Portfolio management is the selection and maintenance of a portfolio that makes any combination of stocks, bonds, real estate, and more in a certain proportion to achieve the risk-reward profile. Whether you are a newbie investor or a veteran investor, knowing the characteristics of portfolio management can help navigate one through market volatility and make good financial decisions.

Types of Financial Portfolio Management

1. Active Portfolio Management

Active portfolio management is the continuous buying and selling of assets in an effort to achieve better performance than the market. The active manager examines the market trend, financial statistics, and economic realities to seize opportunities that will provide higher returns than an index of the market, as seen in the S&P 500. It aims to exploit the short term changes of the market.

2. Passive Portfolio Management

The concept of passiveness is what differentiates it from the rest It tries to track a market index. A passive investment style is where long-term growth is valued and individuals believe that, over time, the market will provide favorable returns, hence less involvement in such an activity. It would normally mean using index funds or exchange-traded funds (ETFs) mirroring the performance of a particular index.

Other Styles

Other than active and passive management, investment styles also include value investing-in pursuit of undervalued stocks-and growth investing-that invests in companies with a high growth potential. Each style offers varied risk and return profiles, hence suitable for different investment objectives.


Investment Considerations

When creating a financial portfolio, the following are considered factors:

Investment Goals: Clearly outline your financial objective, whether short-term gain or long-term wealth accumulation.

Risk Management: Know how much risk you can afford to take. Bond-oriented conservative investors may be inclined towards a conservatively risky bet, while risk-tolerant investors may prefer more aggressive investment decisions.

Time Horizon: Know how long you want to stay invested in the money market. A longer time horizon requires more aggressive investment choices.

Asset Allocation: It simply puts down the way you spread out your investments across different forms of asset classes. This can either be through stocks, bonds, cash equivalents, or real estate. The best thing about having a diversified portfolio is that it reduces your risks by balancing different types of investments.


Benefits of Portfolio Management

Here are some of the benefits of a well-managed portfolio:

Risk Mitigation: By spreading the investments across various asset classes, you would reduce the risks. If one type of asset performs below expectations, others could offset its performance.

Potential for Growth: It can grow constantly over time with the right blend of investments that portfolio management comes with.

Goal Alignment: It brings in the possibility of actualizing financial goals, either retirement, purchase of a house, or funding education, through alignment of your investments and financial objectives.

This is also besides portfolio management allowing you to ride market ups and downs, keeping you from acting impulsively to short-term changes in markets as you are set on long-term goals.


How to Start with Stockbag in Tradetron

1. Login Tradetron

 Log in to Tradetron and use your account credentials. In case you have not registered, just sign up to access the product features.

2. Access Stockbag

 After signing in, click the "Create" tab on the header menu. You will see the option Stockbag, which will open the interface to build and manage your Stockbag:

3. New Stockbag

Click 'New Stockbag': This is where you begin creating a stock portfolio.

4. Name of the Stockbag

Assign an appropriate and descriptive name to your Stockbag that indicates what it will be for, for example "Tech Growth Portfolio" or "Low-Risk Long-Term."

5. Add Description

In the Description field describe what your Stockbag strategy is. This could incorporate reasons for your chosen stocks, the desired market conditions, pertinent risks, or investment objectives.

 For example: This Stockbag targets high-growth tech stocks with less exposure to non-tech sectors for a 3-5 year timeframe.

5. Choose Tags

The drop-down menu for Tags will allow you to group your Stockbag. Among other options, the following are presented: 

  • Arbitrage 

  • Bearish 

  • Breakout 

  • Bullish 

  • Buy/Hold 

  • Calendar Spreads 

  • Delta Neutral 

  • Directional 

Having these tags can provide other users with clarity regarding the nature of your strategy. A good example is where your strategy would focus on holding stock for long-term gains; under such circumstances, you could opt for Buy/Hold and Bullish.


6. Add and Categorize Stocks

Stock look-up/ Add & organize Stockbag: Enter stocks you wish to add to your Stockbag. You must choose at least two to proceed.

Search for Stocks: Use the search bar to find and add stocks.

Organize: You can then sort and arrange your stocks in preference or strategy focus.


7. Select a Weighting Scheme

Weighting Scheme dropdown: You can choose in the Weighting Scheme dropdown how the stocks in your Stockbag should be weighted:

Equal-Weighted: All the stocks in the total portfolio carry an equal percentage of it.

Custom Weight: Weight individual stocks according to their relevance or the performance you expect them to give your strategy.


8. Set Minimum Investment Amount

Determine the Minimum Investment Amount that you wish to assign to this Stockbag. This is very useful in case you intend to make the strategy accessible to subscribers or clients, as they will know how much capital is needed to deploy this Stockbag.


9. Marketplace Settings

Choose how you would like to share this strategy:

Public Strategy: Check this if you would like your Stockbag to be visible and accessible for everybody in the marketplace, on Tradetron.

Private Link Only Subscribers: Leave this as "Yes" if you wish to share it only with a selected group through a private link.

Fee Amount: If you are going to charge a fee to people who would use your Stockbag, type in the fee.


10. Save Your Stockbag

As soon as you fill in all the information, you click on the Save button at the bottom to create your Stockbag. You can now deploy your Stockbag or further backtest it before going live.



Important Features of Tradetron's Stockbag Interface

Customization: The following can be done by customizing this platform with tagging, custom weightage, and entry/exit rules according to your goals of strategies to be implemented.

Backtesting: You can backtest your Stockbag before taking it live to find out exactly how the pick would have performed in history.

Marketplace: The possibility to share your Stockbag with others publicly or privately makes it easier to monetize successful strategies.



FAQs

1. What is financial portfolio management?

Portfolio management is choosing and managing a mix of investments, such as stocks, bonds, and real estate, to create the right balance between a portfolio having its risks and rewards to achieve specific financial objectives that are set.

2. What are the two forms of portfolio management?

The two major types of portfolio management are active and passive. Active management is through short-term buying and selling of a portfolio of assets in the hope of outperforming the markets, while passive management is an attempt to track the performance of some particular market index.

3. In what way does asset allocation help in portfolio management?

Asset allocation diversifies investments across different asset classes such as stocks, bonds, and real estate. This thereby helps to spread risk. Through the diversification of a portfolio, you are assured that a poorly performing asset class would not significantly affect your overall portfolio.

4. What should I consider when putting together my portfolio?

Portfolio building depends on your investment goals, risk tolerance, time horizon, and asset allocation. All these factors help decide which investments are right for your financial situation and objectives.

5. Why is risk management important in portfolio management?

Risk management helps to avoid potential losses through diversification of investments and adjustment of the asset allocation according to the market situation as well as your risk tolerance. The portfolio is thus ready for market fluctuations.