What does a portfolio manager do?

What does a portfolio manager do? 

The tasks in portfolio management revolve around the optimal management of investment items. Whether they're dealing with securities, real estate or corporate investments, private investors and companies use portfolio managers to manage their assets. As a portfolio manager, you'll move large sums of money around, cultivate business contacts and carry out in-depth analyses. Sound interesting? Then you can find out everything you need to know about working in investment management here.

Portfolio manager – tasks 

What does a portfolio manager do? This is a question asked by many students and graduates looking to find a job in the financial sector. And there isn't really one right answer, since portfolio managers are responsible for a different range of tasks depending on their field of activity.

Firstly, some portfolio managers work in securities trading and some in real estate. While there's a stronger focus on short- and medium-term trading when working with securities, in real estate you may also take on longer-term project management roles for the construction and development phase. In any case, you need strong business skills for all core tasks as a portfolio manager. 

• Conduct market analyses to identify opportunities and risks 
• Monitor the development of the portfolio on an ongoing basis to reveal areas that are off-target 
• Draw up investment proposals and present them for implementation to bodies and committees 
• Directly advise institutional and private clients and develop joint strategies

Portfolio managers are more than just traders. If you work with real estate, you'll also be involved in construction project management. As a portfolio manager in this area, you'll have an insight into the operational side of the business by working with project managers.

As you might expect, working with different investment items results in different portfolio manager duties and responsibilities. However, regardless of the varied markets, there are a few core elements of all job descriptions for portfolio managers:

Portfolio manager – job description 

Portfolio managers answer the question of how private and institutional investors can best invest their assets in different values. The main investment objects are securities, stocks and real estate. In all investments, the central conflict between risk and return needs to be resolved in the best way possible. Portfolio managers are tasked with defining investment strategies, implementing them at the operational level and monitoring their success on an ongoing basis.

Development opportunities for portfolio managers 

Trading large sums in rapidly changing markets brings with it a lot of responsibility. In the end, it's crucial to meet the expectations of your own company and your clients. This means you need to be particularly resilient to work as a portfolio manager.

It also helps to have good professional networking skills. The more positive you make your client relations, the more responsibility you'll be able to take on. This also paves the way for attractive development opportunities and a high portfolio manager salary. From a portfolio management position, for example, you can move on to managing clients on a freelance basis or developing your own investment projects.