aivest constructs globally diversified minimum variance portfolios. The aim is to construct a portfolio, that yields a similar return as a global stock index at a similar risk, but with a much smaller subset of stocks (i.e. while a global stock index contains thousands of different stocks, a typical aivest portfolio will only contain about 15 different stocks).

Harry Markowitz published the basics of the quantitative analysis used by aivest in 1952 and received the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1990 for his theories. While his fundamental research is widely accepted, it is disputed if the modern portfolio theory (MPT) is still one of the best methods to invest.

aivest users do not need to understand the theory behind aivest, but may find the following introductions rewarding.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Markowitz
http://en.wikipedia.org/w...ern_portfolio_theory