Certified Portfolio Specialist

• Three years experience in the financial services industry either/or an undergraduate or graduate degree in Finance, Economics, Business or Law from an accredited university, college or school
• Continuous Education: 3 hours of related financial training every year

Learn about the investment mix and policy, matching investments to objectives, asset allocation for individuals and institutions, and balancing risk against performance. The program will give you the opportunity to investigate in detail and elaborate further on points of interest and aspects of concern for yourself and your firm.

The Fundamentals Of Portfolio Management
An overview of:

• investment strategy
• capital markets
• modern portfolio theory

Essential Finance Principles

• An introduction to financial assets and capital markets
• Review of the objectives of corporate financial decision making
• The basics of asset valuation
• PV & FV, rates of return, time value of money
• Reading Financial reports (balance sheets, fund reports, etc)

Portfolio Elements

• The role of the advisory (asset management, institutions, fund managers, etc)
• Risk reward
• Allocation strategies
• Sector, market and other methods of classification
• Regulations and constraints

Compliance and Regulations

The regulatory environment:

• Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive
• Investor Protection, MiDIF II/III
• Impact of Basel II,III and SOX
• EU taxonomy regulation
• Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation
• Regulations, Compliance
• Back office structures
• Control and accounting

Valuing Stocks, Bond and Funds – Pricing The Risk/ Return Relationship
An examination of the creation of value from the perspective of both the firm and the capital markets Methods of pricing firm securities are illustrated along with approaches to estimating and pricing risk and the trade-off between levels of risk and return.

Part 1 – Valuation Methods

• The value of a corporation, characteristics of debt and equity
• Valuing debt, valuing equity, models of dividend growth
• Understanding and applying PE ratios

Part 2 – Risk and Return

• The nature of risk
• Measuring total risk
• More accurate pricing – variance calculations using a probability distribution of returns

Part 3 - Diversification and Optimization

• Diversification theory and the calculation of portfolio risk
• Optimization of returns within a two stock/multi-stock portfol

Capital Structure Policy and Dividend Policy
Discussion of the key policies that follow from an understanding of the workings of the debt and equity markets and portfolio diversification.
Part 1 - Capital Structure Policy

• Capital Structure policy
• Inital public offerings, rights issues and private placements of equity
• Commercial bills and promissory notes
• Financial, operating and leveraged leases
• Modigliani & Miller and capital structure irrelevance

Part 2 - Dividend Policy

• Dividend policy - Payout and plough-back ratios
• Costs of issuing equity
• Transaction costs and information asymmetry

Portfolio Types and Construction
An extension of the concepts covered during the first day examining the most widely applied techniques used in business in making financial and investment decisions

Part 1 - Portfolio Types and Influences

• Asset classes
• Geography Sector
• Macro economic factor

Part 2 – Portfolio Design, Planning and Execution

• Market planning, analysis and targeting
• Segmentation methods
• Funding methods
• Manufacturing (in-house or out-sourced)
• Distribution
• Asset management

Portfolio Theory and Asset Allocation
Portofolio management and the issues related to the construction of an efficient portfolio for an individual client. Also an examination of how portfolios should be funded and at the effects of different types of funding on value creation.

Part 1 – MPT (Modern Poraolio Theory)

• Market risk vs un-systemic risk
• Beta and the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM)
• Choosing an optimum portfolio
• Calculating the cost of equity/debt capital
• The Weighted Average Cost of Capital (WACC)

Part 2 – Portfolio Rebalancing And Asset Mix Techniques

• Managing ongoing customer expectations
• Correlation methods and expected returns
• Strategic and tactical asset allocation
• Portfolio performance appraisal

• Asset Classes
• Capital Markets
• Asset Allocation
• Risk and Return
• Portfolio Management

Certificate of achievement

• 10 hours of virtual meetings with the instructor
• 50 hours of self study including articles and presentations
• Full lifetime access to learning material
• Online examination
• Certificate of achievement

Instructor:

Michael Armstrong
Wealth Management Consultant