Interview, Fireside Chat
The Four Megatrends Shaping Retail Investing
- Four mega-trends driving retail investor focus are the green revolution, technology, healthcare, and the new age consumer.
- The 2.4 billion-person millennial generation is projected to drive investment interest through unique saving habits, spending preferences, and tech-enabled lifestyles, with pandemic-related online migration compressing a 12 to 18-month behavioral shift into weeks.
- Cyclical rebounds are anticipated in travel, restaurant, concert, and activity sectors, complementing existing medium-growth trends, while e-commerce and digital payment platforms are expected to exceed pre-pandemic profitability expectations.
- Mass digitization and the remote work shift are forecast to significantly benefit next-generation identity, cybersecurity, software as a service, cloud platforms, storage towers, and data centers.
- A global 5G rollout across multiple countries is expected over the next several years, creating significant capital expenditure beneficiaries.
- The healthcare industry is predicted to sustain positive impacts from private-sector and government coordination, leading to emerging solutions for challenging diseases driven by regulatory comfort and capital access, with specific opportunities in genomics, gene sequencing, gene editing, gene therapy, and supply-side manufacturing.
- Telemedicine and e-doc solutions are expected to offer considerable investor upside by improving access efficiency and cost-effectiveness.
- Europe is anticipated to lead the ESG and sustainability theme, with fiscal packages directing funding toward renewable power, grid infrastructure, electric vehicles, and transportation techniques.
- Corporate innovation in response to ESG demand tailwinds is expected to focus on automation efficiencies, renewables, sustainable transportation, recycling, packaging, and plant-based proteins, which are projected to generate meaningful alpha opportunities.
- Significant portfolio outperformance is expected to continue due to diversity of thought within investment teams, alongside the permanent democratization of investing.
- Market liquidity is expected to be influenced by central bank pumping, while digitization is set to increase as the firm monitors retail investors and emerging market conditions.