Role of a Portfolio Manager

Portfolio Management

A portfolio is a basket of stocks. Portfolio management of various instruments (shares, bonds, derivatives, etc..) and assets (such as real estate) are arranged in order to meet specified investment goals. A portfolio manager is a person who will help you create one to manage your risk and achieve your profit goals.

Role of a Portfolio Manager

If you end up choosing a portfolio manager, make sure that he helps you do the following:
  • Evaluate your risk taking capacity and needs of return considering your liquidity, income and time frame. He also has to overcome all the legal and regulatory constraints.
  • Make plans and policies to meet your needs and build the best portfolio by allocating funds between financial and real assets. This is known as asset allocation.
  • Diversify your portfolio to eliminate all types of possible risks (systematic/unsystematic).
  • Keep watching the changing capital markets, and the way it will affect your risk/return expectations. He should take appropriate steps to allocate and manage your funds.
  • He should check your needs and circumstances.
  • He should rebalance your portfolio when changes are necessary.
Portfolio managers should also help their clients minimize their total transaction costs. There are three ways to lower costs:
  • Minimize taxes
  • Reduce trading turnover
  • Minimize liquidity costs by trading relatively liquid stocks
Above everything the portfolio manager should follow good ethics to safeguard his client's funds.