ABSTRACT
There are fundamentally two kinds of investors in shipping: flag wavers and asset managers. The business of ship-owning, however, revolves around two main functions: asset management and asset operation. Unexpected events such as war, economic depression, or natural disasters affect ship operations and the overall market. In behavioral economics, the impact of ownership is called the 'endowment effect.' In finance, the term 'portfolio' refers to a bundle of assets. A portfolio is designed to include a variety of stocks with different risk characteristics that, in turn, distributes risk across the assets. A shipping portfolio is expected to cover a variety of ships with different long-term objectives and risk estimations. A shipping investor needs portfolio management that optimizes asset management while allowing for a stable business reputation. Shipping investors do not necessarily have to be shipowners. There are a significant number of companies that can benefit from non-asset investment, and the opportunity of asset play is excluded.
