Investment Management Tool
The following describes an investment management tool based on dynamically linked and re-configurable portfolio building blocks. These building blocks are graphical structural elements of an investment portfolio that represent either individual investments or the hierarchical groupings of individual investments in a multi-tiered investment structure. The portfolio building blocks provide access to a variety of identity/position specific investment tools and they can be individually programmed and dynamically linked to form a highly flexible, hierarchical portfolio management system. The portfolio building blocks when created, structured and linked into an operational portfolio provide an easily manipulated portfolio investment and information management toolkit that dramatically clarifies and simplifies the process with which individual investors can create and manage a portfolio of equities in an investment account.
This application is a continuation of application Ser. No. 10/292,079, filed on Nov. 11, 2002, which claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/338,301, filed on Nov. 13, 2001, and entitled “Investment Management Tool.” Similar to application Ser. No. 10/292,079, the present application is also related to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/547,409, filed on Apr. 12, 2000 and entitled “Investment System and Method,” the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference into the present application.
BACKGROUND OF THE PRESENT INVENTION1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to investment portfolio management tools, and more particularly, to an improved investment portfolio management tool that enable investors to build and manage a customized portfolio of investments.
2. Background Art
For years, investors have been familiar with the convenience of diversifying investment monies through mutual funds. Only recently, however, have the Internet and related investment tools available to consumers made possible dramatic changes in investment methods open to the general public.
One investment technique, which has been enabled by the Internet, is Internet-based stock trading that bypasses individual brokers and therefore saves on transaction fees imposed on the investor. Low cost stock trading and the surge in the stock market over recent years have brought many new investors into the market. However, stock market investing can be risky and expensive. Moreover, it generally causes a great deal of stress with investors as they work their way through the many decision generating factors associated with stock purchases.
Even with the popularity and growth of online stock brokerage firms, many investors still enjoy the convenience, diversification and professional management associated with mutual funds. Mutual funds can offer varying degrees of diversification, sector focus and convenient methods to slowly and methodically build a substantial investment portfolio.
Historically, however, individual stock purchase or mutual fund purchases have been the two options for long-term equity investors. Hybrid account systems that allow customized fund creation have only recently come about with the evolution of the Internet. These systems provide an individual investor with the infrastructure to essentially construct a diversified portfolio of individual equities in a customized fashion while also providing very convenient means for slowly and methodically building the portfolio.
While these custom fund investment solutions offer useful investment options for the general public they seriously lack useful portfolio building and management tools.
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/547,409, filed on Apr. 12, 2000, and entitled “Investment System and Method,” discloses an investment vehicle that enables investors to selectively buy and sell interests in fractionalized market units of individual securities. In one embodiment, investors can organize their holdings into one or more groups defined, for example, by security type (e.g., domestic or international stocks or bonds, small-, mid- or large-capitalization stocks, value equities, growth equities, etc.), by related industry sector (pharmaceutical, electronics, telecommunications, automotive, etc.), or by investment motive (e.g., preferred tax treatment, retirement, college fund, etc.), and each of the groups can preferably have a single-tiered or multi-tiered structure.
To facilitate the purchasing of interests in securities for an account having the aforementioned group structures, an investor can specify an “allocation factor” for each security, for each group, and for each sub-group included in an account. The allocation factor for a group specifies a percentage of a total amount to be used to purchase interests in securities for the account in which the group is located, and the allocation factor for a sub-group specifies a percentage of a total amount to be used to purchase interests in securities for the group in which the sub-group is located. The allocation factor for a particular security specifies a percentage of a total amount to be to be used to purchase interests in securities for the group (or sub-group as the case may be) in which the security is located, or if the security is not in a group or sub-group, a percentage of the total amount to be used to purchase interests in securities for the account in which the security is located. Having established these allocation factors, the investor can transmit an order that simply specifies a total amount to be used for purchasing interests in securities for the entire account and the investment vehicle will automatically purchase or otherwise obtain interests in the appropriate securities in accordance with the relevant allocation factors.
In order to further facilitate the development and maintenance of the account, the investor may also be provided with a visual representation of the account showing the hierarchical nature of the account structure. One such visual representation is shown in
While the foregoing GUI provides the investor with some degree of control over the creation and management of an account, a more robust investment portfolio management tool is desirable.
SUMMARY OF THE PRESENT INVENTIONIt is the object of the present invention to provide an investment portfolio development and management tool to allow a plurality individual investors to visually and intuitively develop and manage customized, graphical, multi-tiered portfolios utilizing dynamically linked and re-configurable portfolio building blocks.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide an investment management tool that provides visual portfolio building blocks that deliver flexible portfolio management whereby changes made to one dynamically linked and re-configurable portfolio building blocks automatically reconfigures the portfolio, portfolio investment activities or information provided by the portfolio accordingly.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide an investment management tool that allows an investor to retain portfolio infrastructure format while changing the constituents of the portfolio.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide an investment management tool that provides a visual portfolio structure that offers the ability for the investor to switch between various expandable modes for full portfolio or more focused concentration of investment allocation, management functions or information resources.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide an investment management tool that provides a visual portfolio structure that offers the ability for the investor to modify any portion of the portfolio structure for any specified full portfolio, subgroup, or single component investment activity.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide an investment management tool that provides a visual portfolio structure that offers the ability for the investor to make outside additions to the portfolio at any time and at any point in the structure within the bounds of the overall operational investment system.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide an intuitive portfolio development and management tool that provides allocation assistance indicators that may appear when developing or changing any relevant portion of the investment portfolio. Indicators could be graphical, numerical, audio or any combination of these.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide an investment management tool that allows an investor to develop and save numerous visual component structures for investment allocation. Whereby the investor has the ability to establish different investment objectives and criteria for each of these visual component structures.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide an intuitive portfolio development and management tool that provides visual and audio alerts (Color codes, animation, sounds, etc.) on building blocks indicating investor pre-programmed alarm points and other various portfolio conditions. For example: equity/subgroup/portfolio up (green)/down (red); target price achieved; portfolio balancing suggested; news alert; etc.
The present invention provides a investment management tool (Investor or Client Based Portfolio Management System 200) that can be integrated with, used in conjunction with, and/or used in communication with an investment management system 300, to allow at least one individual Investor 101 to build and manage a customized portfolio. This is accomplished by providing visual portfolio construction and management functionality along with generally useful information directly and intuitively manageable from the visual construction of the portfolio.
The investment management system 300 is preferably implemented using a programmed computerized data processing system, including one or more central processing units for performing data processing steps as described herein, storage devices and databases for storing account and portfolio information as described herein, and communications interfaces for enabling communication between the investment system, the at least one investor 101 using the portfolio management tool 200, the financial markets, and information resources. For example, the invention can be implemented using an Internet-based communication system or any other viable data communication system, as shown in
Portfolio construction with the portfolio management tool 200 as illustrated in
access to customizable portfolio management tools and/or information resources;
automatic generation of portfolio account relationships between the building blocks when connected together through dynamic links in a multi-tiered portfolio structure;
cascaded information and management actions up and/or down the hierarchical structure in a multi-tiered portfolio to consolidate information and to provide flexibility and simplification to investment activities;
access to dedicated information services such as news items, research information and analyses;
access to historical portfolio activities;
access to portfolio analysis tools such as charting, performance and comparison services; and access to any other related service or information resource that is deemed by the investor to be relevant to the investment portfolio and which is supported by the overall investment management system 300.
In
The DLRPBBs 100 offer the Investor 101 a variety of portfolio construction and management tools as well as information resources that are useful to the Investor 101 and directly applicable to the positioning of the DLRPBB 100 within the portfolio. Through the use of the tools and resources, each DLRPBB 100 offers the Investor 101 a degree of customization whereby the Investor 101 can specify things such as automated portfolio activity requests or information display within the visual context of the DLRPBB 100 in the portfolio structure. The DLRPBB's 100 functionality is dependent upon its placement within the structure of the overall portfolio, as illustrated in
Portfolio creation and management is simplified in many ways by the use of DLRPBBs 100. Among other things, these building blocks can be used to create and structure a portfolio, modify a portfolio, set various investment criteria and execute various investment orders and gain additional information about the portfolio or the individual constituent investments. The DLRPBBs 100 dynamically and automatically link themselves to one another through their customized placement and established links set up in the portfolio structure by the Investor 101. Through these links, pertinent information is transmitted up and down the hierarchical structure of the portfolio to ensure that the appropriate hierarchical functions are carried out within the multilevel investment structure.
As illustrated in
An Investor 101 can create and manage a portfolio with DLRPBBs 100 through a variety of graphical or text based representations so it should be noted that the Investor 101 operated user interface or graphical user interface (GUI) can function in any number of ways to facilitate the placement and usage of the DLRPBBs 100. A structured and automated approach could be used. An example of such a structured approach is illustrated in
The following description of portfolio construction refers to
To further describe the DLRPBB 100 portfolio relationships we refer to
Other highly flexible GUI portfolio construction techniques are certainly possible. One such method could be through a GUI that allows for a drag-and-drop DLRPBB 100 approach much like a typical drawing program or an organization chart developer on a computer. With this technique, the relationships between the DLRPBBs 100 at any level in the multilevel hierarchical structure (portfolio level 202, subgroup levels 203 and individual portfolio investments 204) can be defined by the Investor's 101 custom drawn building block connections.
Managing a portfolio made up of DLRPBBs 100 is a clear and straightforward process. As illustrated in
From this toolkit the Investor 101 can customize a variety of specific account/portfolio related activities or requests such as scheduling various investment activities, or requesting certain pertinent pieces of information. These customized routines and functions may be independently developed for each DLRPBB 100, and, among other things, they may be set as recurring events (if desired) and saved and accessed for modification by the Investor 101 in the future.
Each DLRPBB 100 residing on any level in the multi-tiered portfolio may have the ability to allow the Investor 101 to perform a number of flexible portfolio management functions that are associated with its placement within the portfolio. These portfolio management and information choices can be made available after selecting the appropriate DLRPBB 100. These functions can comprise activities such as portfolio reallocation and restructuring, investment activities such as purchases, sales and limit order placements and manipulation as well as investment research and historical account information. Other account related activities could also be directly driven from this interactive account management system. A few examples from a pull down menu of choices for account management and information activities that can be initiated from the DLRPBBs 100 are illustrated in
The toolkit can provide access to both general and position/identity specific toolset functionality. For instance, by clicking on the Semiconductor subgroup DLRPBB 100 it is possible to obtain access to the general news functions as well as to those news stories that have been keyword searched for “Semiconductors” if pre-programmed by the Investor 101. It is also possible for the Investor 101 to independently program each DLRPBB 100 with a set of different instructions. Any instruction sets that appeared to cause potential problems can be highlighted to alert the Investor 101.
Each DLRPBB 100 can also be dynamically reconfigurable so that the Investor 101 can at will and within the bounds of the investment management system 300 change the properties, programmed settings, representative constituents, and portfolio position of the DLRPBB 100. For instance, a DLRPBB 100 representing an individual investment holding 204 could be selected from the portfolio by the Investor 101 and graphically dragged into a “Sell” window on a portfolio function control panel 205 and thereby prompting an investment activity tool from which the Investor 101 could select to sell all, some or none of the individual investment holding from the portfolio.
Each DLRPBB 100 may also have the capability of automatically, or by customized Investor 101 settings, delivering a visually coded message (color, shapes, etc.) that indicates a specific condition as it relates to the DLRPBBs 100 representation. Multiple conditions are possible here, but some simple illustrative examples may be a green DLRPBB 100 to represent an increase in an investments value (or collective constituents if the DLRPBB 100 represents a group 202 or subgroup 203) or red for a decrease in value.
Investment management functions using DLRPBBs 100 are created and managed using an Investment Activity toolset. The Investment Activity toolset is accessible to the Investor 101 through the DLRPBBs 100 that make up the portfolio or through some other path in the investment management tool 200. Among other activities, the Investment Activity tool allows the Investor 101 to construct, manage and save one or more investment profiles (IPs). The IPs are DLRPBBs 100 operating in an investment allocation structural mode and are made up of one or more portfolio building blocks. They are designed to facilitate investment activities (purchases or sales) under an Investor's 101 customized choice of investment criteria. An IP can represent the entire portfolio, (as in
IPs provide a significant advantage for an Investor 101 managing a diversified portfolio account of equities by providing the Investor 101 the flexibility to construct, implement and save, various portfolio investment activities aside from the overall construction and primary allocation assignments of the portfolio. Multiple IPs are possible for any given account portfolio and each one can be operated independently under a number of Investor 101 defined investment criteria and parameters. For instance, an Investor 101 may set up two different IPs for the entire portfolio. While the first IP is programmed to reoccur monthly and to operate under one set of investment allocation settings, the second may be programmed to operate under a different set of allocation settings and where the investment activities are triggered by a certain set of market events.
IPs do not necessarily require the same structure of DLRPBBs 100 as the portfolio or initially even consist of its constituent investments. In other words, an IP may contain various investments that are new or already existing in the main portfolio and which are not necessarily grouped and structured in the same way they are in the main portfolio. However, all investment activities, once implemented, are recorded and structured into the operating portfolio to which they are associated either automatically or through the input assistance of the Investor 101. The Investor 101 has the option of structuring any newly introduced investment or group/subgroup(s) of investments anywhere in the existing portfolio structure.
Another advantage of multiple IPs allows the Investor 101 to independently manage different subsets of the portfolio in different ways. For example, from
The Investor's Portfolio Management System 200 and the overall Investment System 300 can offer a variety of features to assist the Investor 101 set up and manage the portfolio. For instance, two or more DLRPBBs 100 connected to the same higher-level DLRPBB 100 places them at the same subset investment level or peer group in the portfolio or IP. Therefore the investment allocation across them should equal 100% of the higher-level DLRPBB's 100 allocation in order to avoid a default allocation to cash or other investment instrument. Initially setting or changing one of these investment level peer's allocation factor may therefore activate the allocation assistance functions for Investor 101 clarity and decision making assistance.
Allocation assistance could be made by visually indicating to the Investor 101 what percentage and/or total sum of the overall sub-tiered investment is left over for allocation. For instance, referring to
As the Investor 101 customizes the investment allocations in an IP of the portfolio structure the Investor 101 could work in percentages or monetary value. If an Investor 101 works in monetary values from a bottom-up approach then the total sum allocated to each group/subgroup would be calculated as each investment amount is allocated and the total investment calculation would be available at any given time to the Investor 101 during the allocation process. If on the other hand the Investor 101 worked in a top-down approach with monetary or percentage values then the Investor 101 would always be aware of the investment portion left for allocation in each subgroup or individual investment as the allocation process proceeds. Placing an order to purchase a certain dollar amount of a particular group or subgroup will initiate an order to purchase all the equity constituents below that group or subgroup in the hierarchical structure. If the Investor 101 has pre-programmed the diversification allocation of the group or subgroup and all of its equity constituents then the Investor 101 could have the option to execute the purchase order according to these conditions.
Referring again to
Another tool to provide organized clarity and customizable flexibility to an Investor's 101 visual and information rich portfolio accessible directly through the DLRPBBs 100 is the Research and Information Management Toolset. This toolset allows the Investor 101 to set up and manage the information that the Investor 101 wishes to see on a regular basis as well as allowing the Investor 101 to access information sources for personal research. These tools are accessible through the DLRPBBs 100 and can be customized by the Investor 101 to search information or filter information and deliver it to the Investor 101 on a continual basis, if desired, via numerous methods (i.e. e-mail, wireless alerts, computer screen, etc.). Information can be directly portfolio related (i.e. performance of the portfolio or subset of portfolio, i.e. individual equity alert, etc.) or any other type of information made available by the system that may be of interest to the Investor 101 (i.e. news stories, press releases, etc.). Each customized set of information requested by the Investor 101 can be individually saved as an Information Profile associated with a DLRPBB 100 and accessed by the Investor 101 at a future point for modification. An example of how an Investor 101 may customize an Information Profile under the sample portfolio of
As evidenced by the foregoing description, the present invention offers a simple yet powerful investment management tool that enables investors to create and manage a visual, information rich portfolio in a manner previously unavailable. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made in the investment management tool of the present invention without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention. Thus, it is intended that the present invention covers the modifications and variations of this invention provided they come within the scope of the appended claims and their equivalents.
Claims
1. At least one investor;
- At least one individual investment opportunity;
- An investment management tool, the investment management tool offers a plurality of investment related functions enabling the at least one investor to visually develop and manage at least one portfolio of investments comprised of the at least one investment opportunity through a graphical user interface;
- Wherein the graphical user interface utilizes visual portfolio building blocks that are:
- Individually representative of a constituent underlying investment opportunity;
- Individually addressable by the investor to access associated investment management functionality pertaining to the constituent underlying investment opportunity; and
- Individually customizable by the investor.
2. The investment management tool of claim 1, wherein the investment tool, supports the development and management of at least one multi-tiered portfolio, whereby the constituent underlying investment opportunity for a graphical portfolio building block in a multi-tiered portfolio structure consists of one individual investment opportunity or the direct sub-tier components in the hierarchical structure.
Type: Application
Filed: Mar 4, 2009
Publication Date: Jun 25, 2009
Inventor: Gregory M. Finn (Ramsbury)
Application Number: 12/397,527
International Classification: G06Q 40/00 (20060101);