Your mid-year portfolio check-up in five easy steps

It may come as something of a surprise to discover that we're already halfway through 2011. Not a lot has changed in the first six months of the year: interest rates remain at historic lows with little sign of an imminent hike; Greece and eurozone sovereign debt continue to dominate the headlines; the range-bound FTSE tests 6,000 every now and then but fails to hold on. But despite the malaise in the stock market, your portfolio may well have undergone several shifts in this time period, which is why now is a good time to conduct a mid-year portfolio review. A bi-annual check-up might...