Select another investor profile To access more content, select your investor profile

Thematic equity: the active element of a global stock portfolio

Active Equity
Since the 1990s, we have been building active thematic equity strategies aiming to identify the winning companies of tomorrow in some of the world’s most dynamic industries. An approach that has struck a chord with a growing circle of investors.


Readers of the financial press could be forgiven for thinking that active investing isn’t worth the time and effort. We are told that, as stock prices now accurately capture all available information, investors should abandon their pursuit of alpha altogether.

It’s a persuasive argument, but it would be wrong to claim that long-only active equity investment has outlived its usefulness.

In fact, research shows that a fair proportion of active equity strategies do distinguish themselves over time.https://www.aqr.com/Insights/Research/Alternative-Thinking/Active-and-Passive-Investing-The-Long-Run-Evidence  When investment managers stay true to their very strongest convictions and avoid holding stocks simply to alter a portfolio’s tracking error, such strategies can deliver.

All of which helps explain why a growing number of institutional investors are considering allocating more of their capital to active thematic equity, an approach that is both research intensive and index-agnostic.https://docfinder.bnpparibas-am.com/api/files/de3e08aa-b212-42f8-99c3-3134ceaf6aaf

  • In addition to building thematic equity solutions customized to our clients' needs, we manage 17 thematic strategies*

    *Data as at end of September 2024.

At Pictet Asset Management, we believe there is a different way to invest in equities – one that ignores the constraints of benchmarks and instead looks to capitalise on the structural forces shaping our world. Those forces are known as megatrends

The importance of megatrends

Our active thematic equity strategies aim to capitalise on megatrends – the profound changes in technology, the environment and society that are upending the world and will shape it for decades to come.

From the digitisation of the economy, the rapid expansion of cities or the depletion of the Earth’s natural resources, megatrends matter to investors because they don’t only disrupt industries, they also give rise to clear and predictable sources of value and profit growth.

About the image at the top of the page

  • This is an art installation inspired by the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, Geneva.