Because equity securities represent a significant portion of many investment portfolios, equity portfolio management is often an important component of overall investment success. This study session begins by explaining the role played by equity investments in portfolios, with consideration given to costs and shareholder responsibilities. It then discusses two approaches to equity portfolio management: passive or index-based investing and active equity strategies. The reading on passive equity investing addresses important issues such as alternative approaches to index replication and factor-based passive strategies. Tracking error, risk, and return considerations from an indexing perspective are examined.

This study session takes an in-depth look at active equity portfolio management. It begins with a discussion of quantitative and fundamental equity strategies, including the underlying rationale for the investment approach and how they are created, whether top-down or bottom-up. Factor-based investing, as well as key specialized equity strategies such as activist investing and statistical arbitrage, are explored. The study session concludes with a discussion of issues important in active equity portfolio construction, including active share, active risk, risk budgeting, and constraints on portfolio construction.