Equities

Unlimited Possibilities

To please shareholders and to reduce overheads, portfolio managers have been forced to make compromises. The main impact of these compromises has been on individually managed portfolios, and by default, the investors in those products.

When approaching portfolios management companies to invest, clients are often presented with modeled, commoditized products that promise to manage risk while still generating predictable returns.

This trend is especially prevalent when investing in direct equities. As a result of taking on more and more clients, meeting quotas, sales targets, and sometimes pushing their company's line of products, many portfolio managers have been forced to make efficiencies. As a result, the concept of diversification has been changed.

The concept: More diversification across small, medium, and large-cap securities is enough to counter market volatility.

The issue: Risk isn’t a number to be measured. It’s more of an impression or concept. By trying to reduce risk, portfolio managers often over-diversify and miss out on great opportunities.

Real diversification is:

• Investing in well-researched opportunities that have genuine potential for outperformance
• Investing across business sectors, asset classes, market caps, and locations
• Incorporating fixed income to protect capital values and produce income

This is the way that portfolio management was always meant to be. In the current economy, it can only happen in a conflict-free environment and by treating each investor separately as an individual.