This paper deals with the mathematics of the Markowitz theory of portfolio management. Let E and V be two homogeneous functions defined on ℝⁿ, the first linear, the other positive definite quadratic. Furthermore let Δ be a simplex contained in ℝⁿ (the set of admissible portfolios), for example Δ : x₁+ ... + xₙ = 1, $x_i\ge 0$. Our goal is to investigate the properties of the restricted mappings (V,E):Δ → ℝ² (the so called Markowitz mappings) and to classify them. We introduce the notion of a generic model...