Investment Strategies and Portfolio Management

As the global pandemic continues to upend nearly every aspect of our lives, the stock market veers from one extreme to the other. Investment professionals and portfolio managers are finding themselves awash in a sea of conflicting market signals and unprecedented uncertainty. Investment Strategies and Portfolio Management is essential for anyone who wants a clear-eyed view of investing in the time of COVID-19 and how to come out on top.

In this program, participants will create optimal investment portfolios that suit their needs and solidly accommodate risk, including small-probability risk. They will also learn how to critically evaluate investment management options using new data and how to unpack the macroeconomic outlook in the U.S. and internationally. This timely finance program is expertly designed to help investment professionals and financial advisors interpret and understand the market data and capitalize on the investment opportunities that are emerging today.

Program Experience

Highlights and Key Outcomes

In Investment Strategies and Portfolio Management, you will:

• Receive new tools and techniques for creating profitable investment portfolios
• Critically evaluate investment managers using the latest research
• Gain a deeper understanding of how to account for financial risk, including the impact of unforeseen small-probability events like pandemics
• Learn how to assess the stock market’s reactions to events using behavioral finance principles
• Get an expert view of the predicted length and shape of an economic recovery
• Understand the macroeconomic outlook both in the U.S. and globally

Experience & Impact

The once-in-a-century occurrence of a global pandemic has thrown an unexpected degree of volatility into the financial markets leading to greater investment uncertainty in numerous sectors. This is a time when much more is needed than conventional investing wisdom. Investment Strategies and Portfolio Management provides financial professionals with a powerful new strategic approach based on the latest Wharton research. In this program, Wharton faculty, who are world-class thought leaders in the world of finance, will explore a wide variety of investing topics — from enhanced portfolio theory to bond management, from hedge funds to private equity — all against the backdrop of the seismic changes the pandemic has wrought across the U.S. and global economies.

Participants will acquire the latest tools and techniques for designing optimal investment portfolios that serve people’s needs. You will also learn to effectively evaluate investment management options using newly available research data. Find out how investment managers are currently rated, what variables are used to assess their skills, and how to weigh these factors against the fees they charge. This is essential knowledge both for investors and for investment management firms looking to hire managers.

Risk management is a key topic in this program, including an analysis of small-probability, disaster-type events such as the global pandemic. Wharton professors will delve into why the standard measure of risk, often called volatility, is insufficient given the events the world has seen in 2020. They will discuss what is known as tail risk — extremely bad, infrequent occurrences — and describe how investment professionals can pick up early indicators and better manage such events.

You will also learn about behavioral finance, including how investors and the public tend to respond to unusual occurrences. Examine the market’s reaction to COVID-19 as compared, for example, to the typical reaction to excessive seasonal flu deaths. Behavioral finance can help investors better understand and anticipate dramatic increases or drops in stock prices.

Participants will expand their horizons when it comes to the macroeconomic outlook and policy uncertainty. What shape will the recovery most likely take? Where should you put your money when COVID-19 is deferentially affecting various regions? What are the international considerations as far as monetary policy and central banks? All of these questions, and more, will be discussed.

Balancing the historical with the visionary — yet practical above all — this program enables you to access the best minds in finance so you can steer with confidence through this uniquely challenging time.

Session topics include:

• The Asset Menu
• Enhanced Portfolio Theory
• Performance Measurement vs. Skill
• Evaluating and Rating Managers: Case
• Behavioral Finance
• Bond Management
• Stock Markets vs. Bond Markets: Case
• Advanced Asset Allocation
• Risk Management
• Private Equity
• International Markets
• Macroeconomic Outlook
• Hedge Funds
• Real Estate