The Analyst's Path

Glossary

Portfolio construction

M9.02

Also called constructing a portfolio.

Assembling individual decisions into a whole that behaves as intended.

The work is mostly about interaction rather than selection. Twenty good ideas that share one underlying exposure produce a concentrated portfolio wearing a diversified label, and the exposure that matters is often not the sector but the driver: interest rates, the rupee, the monsoon, or a single regulatory decision.

Sizing, correlation and liquidity are the three constraints that turn a list of ideas into a portfolio, and the third is the one most often ignored until it matters.

Map the drivers, not the sectors.