Assets and Allocation

Asset Allocation -

Wikipedia EN says:
Inherent in asset allocation is the idea that the best-performing asset varies from year to year and is not easily predictable. Therefore having a mixture of asset classes is more likely to meet your goals. A more fundamental justification for asset allocation is the notion that different asset classes offer non-correlated returns, hence diversification reduces the overall risk in terms of the variability of returns for a given level of expected return. In this respect diversification has been described as "the only free lunch you will find in the investment game."



FAZ.NET says:
Aufteilung des Kapitals auf verschiedene Investmentarten (Anlageklassen, Währungen, Regionen). Der Ertrag und das Risiko eines Portfolios kann durch die Auswahl der Wertpapiere und deren Gewichtung bestimmt und optimiert werden.

What does allocate mean?
Roget's Thes says:
allocate

Definition: assign
Synonyms: admeasure, allot, apportion, appropriate, budget, cut, designate, dish out*, divide, divvy*, divvy up, earmark, give, mete, set aside, share, slice
Antonyms: keep, keep together
Notes: to allocate something is to set it aside for a specific purpose; to allot something is to give it with an implied restriction and an understanding of sharing


Where does allocate come from?
Etymonline says:
allocate (v.) Look up allocate at Dictionary.com
1640, from adj. (1438), from M.L. allocate (the common first word of writs authorizing payment), imperative pl. of allocare "allocate," from L. ad- "to" + locare "to place."

° ° °
c.1300, from O.Fr. alouer "approve," from L. allaudare, compound of ad- "to" + laudare "to praise," confused and merged in O.Fr. with alouer "assign," from L. allocare (see allocate). From the first word came the sense "permission based on approval," from the second the meaning preserved in allowance "a limited portion or sum (usually of money or food)," first recorded 1440.


Personally I can't help associate allocate with place - locale - it's my Latin training. And the French alouer - assign fits right in - you put a thing in a place - a certain portion in a certain place. In its slot. And voila we arrive at the current meaning of placing assets in different investment classes.

gisela. Translator? You just found her.
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