Portfolio management is the process of selecting, evaluating, and monitoring an investment portfolio. It is used to maximize returns and protect investments against market risk. It involves assessing an individual’s income and financial objectives, selecting appropriate investments, and diversifying assets to minimize losses.

Portfolio managers often have to meet with their clients one-on-one and gain a detailed understanding of the client’s current financial status, long-term goals, and tolerance for risk. Then, they create a plan to meet the client’s objectives. The plan may include the purchasing of assets such as stocks, bonds, and other securities.

A portfolio manager can be an individual or a company. The latter usually hires a full-time portfolio manager who manages the portfolio for the firm.

The portfolio manager can choose from several strategies, such as passive management (a set-it-and-forget it approach), active management (which tries to beat the markets), or both. They also need to make sure that they diversify their holdings and rebalance them frequently.

Asset diversification means owning multiple asset classes or types of investments to reduce risk and increase returns. It also ensures that even if one type of investment falls, the entire portfolio doesn’t.

Diversification can be accomplished by purchasing a variety of different assets, such as stocks, bonds, and foreign currencies. It can also be achieved by using a portfolio-management software program that allows investors to swap out one asset for another.

Portfolio managers need to be able to weigh strengths and weaknesses, opportunities and threats across all types of investments. This is important to ensure that an investor makes the right choices and reaches their financial goals.

In addition, it is important to consider the overall cost of investing. This can include commissions, fees, and other expenses.

A project portfolio is a collection of projects that share productive, financial, and human resources. It requires coordinating multiple initiatives and managing their connections and dependencies, so that all projects can be effectively managed.

This is a time-consuming process, so it’s important to have a strategy in place before you begin collecting projects. This includes developing a valuation criteria for each of the projects in your portfolio. This will help you select the best projects for your organization’s strategic goals.

A strategic portfolio management solution will allow you to track all of your projects in a single place, roll-up progress status and financial data from teams throughout the organization, and automate go/no-go decisions so that every project in your portfolio contributes to your business’ goals. This can help you prioritize your portfolio, deliver faster, and save time and money in the process.