Portfolio

A portfolio is all of your investments considered together: stocks, bonds, funds, and any cash sitting in an investment account. The word says nothing about how much money is involved. If you hold $800 in a fund that tracks the S&P 500 and $200 in a fund that holds bonds, that is a $1,000 portfolio.

Funds hold portfolios of their own. When you buy into a mutual fund or an exchange-traded fund, your share represents part ownership of the investments the fund holds.

A portfolio can be described by proportions, such as 70 percent stocks and 30 percent bonds, because the mix shapes how much it can rise and fall. Any portfolio holding stocks or bonds can lose value. Spreading money across many holdings limits the damage from one company failing, but not from a whole market falling.