Portfolio Management

Portfolio management is a core service many Australian stock brokers will provide customers. This excludes discount or no frills stock brokers who let users manage their own portfolios in exchange for lower brokerage fees.

Depending on your personal financial goals and the full-advice broker you choose, stock brokers may take complete control of your portfolio or they may simply offer advice and leave the final management decisions up to you. In many cases, long-term investors will not change their investments very frequently, so portfolio management is minimal anyway.

In volatile markets, portfolio management is essential to guard against risk and maximise profits and investment opportunities. If a business, market sector or even entire stock markets show consistent down trends, you will need to regear or liquidate your portfolio to avoid losses. Remember, liquidating your portfolio once the market has made significant losses will only crystallise lost funds.

On the other hand, if a particular company, segment or stock market is trading more positively consistently and has a bright future prospective, you may want to manage your portfolio to take advantage of any new information as it happens. The amount of portfolio management you or your broker performs will depend on your individual situation.

Speak to your stock broker about your portfolio management.