Finance

---

Main article portfolio (finance)

In finance, a portfolio is a collection of investments held by an institution or a private individual. Holding but not always a portfolio is part of an investment and risk-limiting strategy called diversification. By owning several assets, certain types of risk (in particular specific risk) can be reduced.

Management and marketing

---

In strategic management and marketing, a portfolio is a collection of products, services, or brands that are offered for sale by a company. In building up a product portfolio a company can use various analytical techniques including B.C.G. Analysis, contribution margin analysis, G.E. Multi Factoral analysis,and Quality Function Deployment. Typically a company tries to achieve both diversification and balance in their portfolio of product offerings.

Many portfolio optimization algorithms are based on MPT or Modern Portfolio Theory. The most commonly used method is Mean-Variance optimization where portfolio allocations aim at maximizing the profit while constraining the risk.

see also: Product management, strategic management, marketing, problems with portfolio models

Education and learning

---

In education, portfolio refers to a personal collection of information describing and documenting a person’s achievements and learning. There is a variety of portfolios ranging from learning logs to extended collections of achievement evidence. Portfolios are used for many different purposes such as accreditation of prior experience, job search, continuing professional development, certification of competences.

Tens of millions of people across the world have already used some kind of portfolio. Alone in the UK, more than 4 million people have got a qualification (NVQ) through accreditation of prior learning or accreditation of work experience, and most of them have built a portfolio to collect the evidence required to get their certificate.

The recent explosion of knowledge, information and learning technologies has led to the development of digital portfolios or electronic portfolios, commonly referred as ePortfolios.

Art and photography

---

An artist, architect, or fashion model seeking work will be expected to present a portfolio of their prior work, along with recommendations of clients. The work will often consist of photographs, magazine clippings ("tearsheets"), blueprints or mock-ups, or other physical evidence of the trade.

Politics

---

In politics, portfolio can refer to the office of the President in a country. Portfolio can also refer to the contents of the job a minister has. For example in the United Kingdom, Peter Mandelson's title was Minister Without Portfolio.

Product managementMarketingStrategic managementManagement

Portefølje | Portfolio | Portefeuille | ポートフォリオ | Portfolio | Инвестиционный портфель