Managing Your Investment Portfolio For Dummies – UK

Learn to: Build and manage a flexible portfolio of investments Track and predict volatility and economic cycles Use a range of strategies to beat the market Understand what kind of investor you are – and tailor your portfolio accordingly Watch the value of your portfolio grow, in bull, bear and sideways markets alike The basic building block for any investor should be the humble portfolio ; a range of assets held within your stock-broking or investing account. Why? Because when you diversify your portfolio, you reduce risk. Many of the best professional money managers have built successful careers using this approach, looking to a range of asset classes and investment strategies to achieve positive returns in any market. Here David Stevenson shows how you can use many of these strategies in your own portfolio. Portfolio management basics – get the lowdown on traditional strategies and the latest techniques for protecting your nest egg while growing your wealth Mix it up – discover why asset diversification is the key to creating a winning portfolio and how to find the right mix for you Meet the hedgies – learn the basics of how hedge fund managers leverage economic cycles and market volatility Invest like a hedgie – start using some of the simpler hedge fund techniques, including going long and short, arbitrage, leveraged investing and more Play like the pros – learn to use commodities trading, investing in emerging markets, currency trading and other advanced wealth-building strategies and techniques Bet on market moves – make use of spread betting, options trading, ETFs, structured investments and other innovative 'tools of the trade' Open the book and find: Guidance on tailoring a portfolio to your investing style and long-term goals Ways to hedge your exposure by going long and short Techniques for making short-term gains on very volatile markets "Hedgie" strategies, including arbitrage, macro trading, relative value and more Tricks for profiting from distressed assets and undervalued companies Key indicators of economic trends and how to cash in on them

Introduction 1 Part I: It’s All about Portfolios 7 Chapter 1: Introducing Great Opportunities for Advanced Investors 9 Chapter 2: Assessing Risk: Deciding What Kind of Investor You Are 25 Part II: Picking the Strategies for You 43 Chapter 3: Grasping Basic Hedge–Fund Strategies 45 Chapter 4: Dealing with Volatility and Economic Cycles 63 Chapter 5: Digging Deeper into Alternative Assets: Commodities and Currencies 91 Chapter 6: Assessing the Hedge–Fund Industry: Don’t Believe the Hype 111 Part III: Thinking and Acting Like a Hedgie: Simple Strategies You Can Employ Yourself  129 Chapter 7: Selling What You Don’t Own: Short Selling 131 Chapter 8: Understanding Arbitrage: Big Name, Simple Idea 149 Chapter 9: Weighing Up Growth Versus Value Investing 165 Chapter 10: Gearing up to Use Leverage 187 Chapter 11: Stepping into Structured Investments 197 Chapter 12: Benefitting from Shareholder Activism 211 Part IV: Delving into More Specialist Techniques (with a Little Help) 229 Chapter 13: Advanced Investing in Commodities: Sharks and Rocket Scientists 231 Chapter 14: Investing in Emerging–Market Equities and Currencies 253 Chapter 15: Investing Macro Style: Seeing the Big Picture 269 Part V: Tools of the Trade: Useful Instruments 295 Chapter 16: Following Indices: Exchange–Traded Funds and Other Trackers 297 Chapter 17: Taking a Punt on the Financial Markets 325 Part VI: The Part of Tens 339 Chapter 18: Ten Top Tips to Protect Your Stash 341 Chapter 19: Ten Hedge–Fund Style Techniques to Grow Your Wealth 347 Index 353

David Stevenson is a columnist for the Financial Times where he writes the Adventurous Investor section. He is also a columnist for Investors Chronicle and author of Investing in Shares For Dummies, UK edition.