As an investor it's imperative you have a 'plan'. You wouldn't purchase a derelict wreck of a house, if you didn't have a plan in place in regards to how the project may evolve, and the same consideration should be taken with your investment portfolio.

Whilst you will always have particular preferences in regards to the type of market you would prefer to invest into, or possibly have knowledge of, any IFA should be advising you to be diversified, and build a portfolio that will assist you in meeting your goals.

Investment planning is the process of matching your financial goals and objectives with your financial resources. Investment planning is a core component of financial planning. There are thousands of different investments, with the most common being cash, equities, bonds and property.

Most investment plans will consist of exposure to all of these assets, combined with other investments creating an overall intention of Capital Growth, Capital Preservation or Income.

Before you make your plan, you need to take stock and identify your needs and goals. Questions to ponder over may include:

What time frames should I be considering?
What is my risk appetite?
What is my propensity to loss?
What kind of returns do I need and can I reasonably expect?
How much of my plan can I manage myself?
How often do I want to check and monitor my investment portfolio?
Are you investing with retirement in mind?
Are you investing to assist with your children's school fees?
Are you investing to save a deposit to purchase a house?

Once you have a clear picture in your mind of what you're looking to achieve, and the risk you are prepared to take to achieve your goals, you can then start building your investment portfolio around it.

It tends to be the prudent approach to build an investment portfolio that is diversified across sectors, industries and markets, and your portfolio should also consist of investments with a variation of risks, and potential returns which then creates your overall methodology. Your local IFA would no doubt happily advise you on this.

For some 'Income' may be the objective, so you'll probably find a composition predominantly of income related products like commercial property, government bonds, and high dividend paying equities.

For others, 'Capital Growth' might be the primary target, and the portfolio may consist of investments that are willing to take on a slightly larger risk across the board, or possibly the bulk of the portfolio could be structured predominantly with a 'mid risk' appetite but with a speculative smaller portion of the overall portfolio positioned quite aggressively. Again- just like the 'Income' example- brought together these investments would create the overall methodology.

One company who can provide a proposition that would appeal to an investor looking for an aggressive edge to their portfolio, with a strong 'Capital Growth' element attached to the portfolio- is 'The Multi Strategy Investment' division within Cadogan Asset Management. Sam Gurung at the Multi Strategy Investment offered this take on how they could compliment a shrewd and solid investment plan-

'Firstly, the offering we make available wouldn't be suitable for all clients. It would be wrong of our team to onboard a client who is looking for pure 'Capital Preservation' and place them with an aggressive edge to their portfolio.

Having said that, our trading team do personalise the risk to each and every client we work with.

Depending on the clients overall investment objectives, and the composition of the rest of his or her portfolio they may risk 5-15% of their overall portfolio with our team.

Within that portion they may decide to build a very speculative portfolio, or something looking to achieve just slighter higher than they are receiving elsewhere.

One of the benefits of working with our team is they will spread your investment across multiple markets (FX, Equities and Commodities) meaning you'll create a diversified portfolio, and our team trade via a series of technical trading strategies, again- meaning you won't be over reliant on any particular model.

In my opinion- the most positive variable is that our offering is an 'Absolute' strategy meaning that regardless of the market climate- we will be looking to yield a profit.

If equities depreciate over the next 12 months, or if the GBP struggles to gain traction with the Brexit negotiations ongoing then I would expect portfolios to be built selling Equities and selling the Great British Pound.

Having said that, having the option to invest like this doesn't mean our team will always be right. They most certainly won't be. There will be some months and quarters where we underperform for sure. This is why it is imperative that our clients have a solid investment plan in place, they understand the type of risk/volatility they are willing to take on with all segments of their portfolio, and if that is the case- our trading team can build them a portfolio that we believe will suit their needs and requirements.'


Other Relevant Articles:

https://www.thebalance.com/an-investment-plan-requires-5-key...

http://www.unityfinancialpartners.com/investment-planning/wh...

https://www.nfumutual.co.uk/investments/select-investment-pl...


For further information on the 'Multi Strategy Investment' at Cadogan, or for further market commentary please contact Sam Gurung on sg@msicadogan.co.uk