From Wall street to main street: reaching out to small investors

We present an intelligent agent based portfolio management system, which can be used by the financial services industry to provide inexpensive Internet-based "self serve" offerings to small investors. This system is designed to assist investment banking firms, which offer funds of funds. Banker agents assist mutual fund managers in devising a global efficient frontier from the individual risk-return characteristics of each of the funds from which a portfolio can be constructed. Investor agents offer personalized advice to each individual investor regarding the choice of a portfolio. The various investor agents also learn from each other through "forums" hosted by the concerned financial services firm. Such a system requires minimal human intervention on both sides (the banker and the investor) thereby reducing costs without sacrificing service quality.