investmentIntermediate
Portfolio Diversification: The Complete Guide
Why and how to diversify your wealth. Asset classes, correlations, common mistakes and a practical method to reduce risk without sacrificing returns.
investment10 min read
Free quiz
What kind of investor are you? Your risk level, from 1 to 7
Eight questions on your horizon, what you can afford to lose, what you can stand and what you know. A reasoned level, the axis that limits it, and what it implies. Your answers never leave your browser.
0 of 8 answered
Horizon
Loss capacity
Tolerance
Knowledge
Your answers are never sent: the profile is computed on your device. Only anonymous audience measurement (page viewed, question answered) is recorded, never your situation.
8 more answers to show your profile.
The guide
Finding your risk level: the four axes, and the seven levels
A risk level is not a temperament: it is where four things meet, and they do not offset each other. Horizon, because money needed in two years must not depend on a market. Loss capacity, because a drop without emergency savings becomes a forced sale. Tolerance, because an investment you cannot stand gets sold at the worst time. Knowledge, because you only hold through a drop you understand.
That is why the quiz caps the result at the weakest axis plus one notch — the principle of the suitability questionnaires regulation requires of advisers. High risk tolerance with a short horizon gives a cautious profile, not a dynamic one. The result says which of the four limits it, and so what should change before moving up a level.
The level does not say what to buy. It gives a proportion: the share of financial wealth that can be exposed to markets, diversified — and the share that must stay safe. The seven levels below are those of the Patrice slider.
The four axes
Horizon
When the money will be needed, and for what. The further and vaguer the date, the more time a drop has to recover. A dated expense is a short horizon, whatever the appetite.
Loss capacity
What the situation allows to lose with no effect on daily life: a cushion, regular income. It is the most objective axis — and the most often ignored.
Tolerance
What you can stand psychologically: the reaction to a 20% drop, the preference between a steady return and a higher but bumpy one. It is often discovered at the first real drop.
Knowledge
The products already held, and the understanding of the mechanics — volatility, diversification, fees. You hold through a drop you understand; you sell the one you do not.
The seven levels
Those of the app's slider, each with its volatility, horizon and typical allocation. Orders of magnitude, not a prescription.
| Level | Volatility | Horizon | Typical allocation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Very cautiousGuaranteed capital, no loss acceptable. | Very low | Short term, under 3 years | 100% secure: savings accounts, guaranteed funds |
| CautiousSafety first, very low risk. | Low | Short to medium term, 3 to 5 years | 80% secure, 20% cautious |
| ModerateLimited volatility, for some return. | Moderate | Medium term, 5 to 7 years | 60% secure, 40% diversified |
| BalancedThe balance between safety and performance. | Medium | Medium to long term, 7 to 10 years | 50% secure, 50% dynamic |
| DynamicPerformance sought, volatility accepted. | High | Long term, 10 to 15 years | 30% secure, 70% equities and diversified |
| AggressivePerformance first, high volatility. | Very high | Long term, over 15 years | 10% secure, 90% equities and crypto |
| SpeculativeMaximum return, total loss possible. | Extreme | Very long term, over 20 years | 100% speculative: crypto, options, start-ups |
A profile gets revisited: at every change of situation — income, project, birth, inheritance — and every time a drop was harder to live through than expected. That is why Patrice keeps it as an editable setting, not a box ticked once. For the equity share, ETFs remain the simplest way to keep the exposed part diversified.
A profile only matters against real wealth
In Patrice, your risk profile informs how your allocation reads: what is secure, what is exposed, the gap with your level. The account is free; the demo shows the app with sample data.
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Frequently asked questions
Because tolerance is only one axis of four. If your horizon is short or your emergency savings thin, the result is capped by that axis, plus one notch. The result says which: that is what to change before moving up — not the answer to the quiz.
No, to the savings you invest with no set date. Your home, your emergency savings, the money for a dated project are not part of it: each has its own logic. One household can have a cautious pocket and a dynamic one.
To read your allocation. The app compares the secure and exposed shares of your financial wealth with the typical allocation of your level, and flags a large gap. It changes nothing in your assets and recommends no product.
No. An adviser must run a full suitability questionnaire — situation, goals, experience — before any recommendation. This one gives you a benchmark for your own decisions, and to set the app's slider.
No. The profile is computed in your browser and your answers vanish when you close the tab. We only measure, anonymously, that the page was viewed and a profile computed — never your answers.