Some Science, Some Art

In my time in this career managing investment portfolios, something that has rung true is the reality that it’s not all about the hard data. Like a lot of things in life, I suppose. Sometimes, the market data (numbers, information) is clear and takes control of the decision-making process, while other market environments might be riddled with other variables that add in layers of “art” to the investment management process, like this current display of the effects of tariffs, or even rewind back to the dot-com bubble at the turn of the century.

The “art” isn’t any sort of magic, nor some mysterious smoke screen to make this process appear to be any more complex than it is. The art of it all refers to the intangible aspects of investing in stock markets in 2025: domestic policies, foreign policies, economic factors, speed and veracity of information flows.

Stock prices are purely the result of supply and demand of any given company’s underlying product or service. Increasing demand from the customer for more product/service, or lack of supply, will drive the price up. Decreased demand (or surplus of supply) will cause the price to decline. There are a lot of direct and indirect factors, however, that can affect both the supply side and demand side, tangible and intangible.

Managing a portfolio includes the consideration of many of those factors, though it’s impossible to have all information all of the time. So, we arrive to the reality of not being able to guarantee the future stock price of an asset today… because we don’t have all the information.

We put a tremendous amount of weight of our investment methodology in the science and data of stocks and funds. The data we analyze, from broad-market data to specific single-stock data, and the charts that are subsequently created, gives us a noise-free version of that supply and demand conversation. Though the art aspect exists as well in our portfolio management. Much like an athlete with thousands of hours under their belt playing the sport they love might develop an elite situational awareness, a portfolio manager must be able to understand the tactical ground-level view of a stock, while also folding in their understanding of the global stock market and economy as it exists today.

Our work with DIY investors mirrors the work we do managing our in-house clients’ portfolios. We comb the data to understand optimal portfolio positioning while also trying to weigh indirect factors that might bleed into future performance (again, tariffs, military activity globally, domestic economic policy). Both the science and art are considered in creating or rebalancing a portfolio.

There is certainly no single way to manage an investment portfolio, and there are many styles that can be productive, though one piece of advice I give any DIY investor that I speak with is this: rules are important for managing an investment portfolio, but be ready to learn something new when the data doesn’t quite add up. Learn to ask better questions and look where you haven’t before for understanding. And be prepared to still have some gaps in your understanding.

And a quick plug on what I do: I manage investment portfolios for anyone who wants it. I also give advice without the investment management. If you’re interested in either, and you want to grow your investment portfolio and stop stressing about that task in your life, we should talk ASAP!

Email me now, and we will set up a call this week: [email protected]