Practical Portfolio Management

This unit synthesizes investing principles into practical decision-making: selecting asset mixes, choosing products and advisors, managing risk, and executing trades while considering taxes, costs, and behavioral pitfalls. It builds on foundational investing concepts and prepares students to implement, monitor, and defend real-world investment plans and client recommendations.

Learning Objectives

• Analyze and construct diversified investment portfolios across stocks, bonds, funds, real estate, cash equivalents, and alternative assets that align with specified investor goals, time horizons, and tax considerations.
• Evaluate and mitigate investment risks by applying asset-allocation strategies, loss-cutting rules, insurance and asset-protection techniques, and identification of common behavioral biases and market noise.
• Apply objective criteria to select and compare investment products, brokers, and financial advisors based on fees, performance history, liquidity, regulatory protections, and fiduciary responsibilities.
• Demonstrate procedures for monitoring investments, accounting for transaction costs and tax implications, executing informed exit strategies, and communicating recommendations to stakeholders and clients.