Course Code: 510

Duration: 1 day

Level: Basic

Fee: $795

Instructor: Douglas Carroll

CPE Credits: 7

Prerequisite: Seminar 511 or 530 or equivalent experience is recommended but not required.

This seminar provides a wide-ranging overview of the concepts, process and tools of portfolio management. The presentation first addresses the fundamentals of risk and return and how these issues should be considered in the investment objective setting process.

The discussion will consider how these factors vary across investors for various types of institutional as well as individual investors. Asset allocation decisions and their implications will also be addressed. The bulk of the seminar will be devoted to fixed income and equity portfolio management.

Topics discussed will include: Portfolio management styles; performance of active versus passive strategies; measuring risk and calculating risk adjusted returns; performance attribution; selection of appropriate benchmarks. The program is designed to give participants insight into the key aspects of the duties and responsibilities of managing investment portfolios.

The seminar would be beneficial to early career professionals in trading or sales seeking a better understanding of this complementary function. The seminar would be particularly useful to early or mid career professionals working in capacities that support or interface with portfolio managers such as clearance and settlement, compliance, financial control or middle office.

Introduction to Portfolio Management
* Investment Objective Setting
* Modern Portfolio Theory
* Risk and Return - Definition, Sources and Quantification
* Asset Allocation - Definition, Importance, Tactical versus Strategic

Fixed Income Portfolio Management
* Active versus Passive Fixed Income Portfolio Management
* Active Portfolio Management Styles
* Indexed Portfolios
   *True Indexing
   *Quasi Indexing
   *Enhanced Indexing
* Assessing Performance
   *Benchmarks
   *Return Attribution
   *Quantifying Risk

Equity Portfolio Management
* Active versus Passive Equity Portfolio Management
* Active Portfolio Management Styles
* Indexed Portfolios
   *True Indexing
   *Quasi Indexing
   *Enhanced Indexing
* Assessing Performance
   *Benchmarks
   *Return Attribution
   *Quantifying Risk

Introduction to Portfolio Management
* Investment Objective Setting
* Modern Portfolio Theory
* Risk and Return - Definition, Sources and Quantification
* Asset Allocation - Definition, Importance, Tactical versus Strategic

Fixed Income Portfolio Management
* Active versus Passive Fixed Income Portfolio Management
* Active Portfolio Management Styles
* Indexed Portfolios
   *True Indexing
   *Quasi Indexing
   *Enhanced Indexing
* Assessing Performance
   *Benchmarks
   *Return Attribution
   *Quantifying Risk

Equity Portfolio Management
* Active versus Passive Equity Portfolio Management
* Active Portfolio Management Styles
* Indexed Portfolios
   *True Indexing
   *Quasi Indexing
   *Enhanced Indexing
* Assessing Performance
   *Benchmarks
   *Return Attribution 
   *Quantifying Risk

After completing this program, participants should be able to:

• Describe the characteristic features of various portfolio management styles (active, passive, semi-active/passive, indexing, etc.) and implications for security selection and portfolio construction of the different styles

• Discuss basic issues in assessing investment management performance including defining, differentiating and relating to one another: measurement of investment returns, performance assessment, and return attribution 

• Identify key elements of MPT (Modern Portfolio Theory) and CAPM (Capital Asset Pricing Model) and recognize how particular aspects of each are used in quantifying risk and assessing returns

• Discuss investor rationale for adopting indexing strategies, including types of indexing (full portfolio replication, enhanced indexing, etc.), impact on expected risk and return as well as fee and expense related issues

• Define commonly used risk measures (standard deviation of return, Beta & duration) and describe their use in quantifying and expressing risk as well as assessing performance