Investment Management

Achieving desired investment results is a challenging ongoing goal that is often times contingent upon the adherence to a well defined process. Even though capital market and macro economic variables are constantly shifting, the investor’s long term goal remains anchored to expectations rooted in science and math. The careful strategic and tactical navigation throughout this journey is a life’s work that demands focus and perspective.

When ideas and themes work, a well designed portfolio will not give back hard earned gains to fees and tax drag. Portfolio managers can choose from a broad array of components when building a portfolio. Often times there is a choice between multiple vehicles that possess positively correlated risk characteristics varying degrees of tax and expense consequences. Minimizing avoidable return drag allows the portfolio to keep and reinvest more of its hard earned gains.

Consistent performance demands perspective, creativity, and discipline. We know one thing for sure, we cannot predict the future. When understanding the characteristics of an investment portfolio we can only look back on how it performed in the past or how an idea would have weathered various market scenarios. While we do not have a crystal ball, we can lean on science and math to help us prepare for the unknown. Whether a portfolio is constructed using a strategic bias or a tactical one understanding and applying key scientific metrics is crucial.

The first pooled investment vehicle was born in 1893 at Harvard University, the first U.S. Mutual Fund in 1924, Separate Accounts became available to individuals around 1979, ETFs began their presence in 1993. Today we have 1300 exchange traded products and more on the drawing board I am sure. As more pooled vehicles and indexes emerge there will be new and innovative ways to combine them in portfolios. As Investment advisors look to create more optimal solutions for their clients, the evolution of portfolio design will continue to progress.