Some brokerage houses offer the opportunity to invest in themes, meaning you assemble a portfolio of stocks or funds based on a single theme — from the latest economic, industrial and political swings to the most popular investing strategies — and experts say the strategy can carry major benefits.
"When you think about opportunities, opportunities don’t care what country or sector you’re in," Dan Roarty, portfolio manager for global growth and thematic portfolios at AllianceBernstein, tells
The New York Times.
"With thematic investing, you’re free to color outside of the lines."
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Motif, an online thematic investing brokerage, explains that it lets investors buy "weighted baskets of stocks based on ideas." It offers numerous theme portfolios or you can come up with your own. You pay $9.95 to buy or create a collection of up to 30 stocks and/or exchange-traded funds. Buying 30 stocks through a discount brokerage could cost about $300.
"The problem that many of us experience is we can think about investing thematically, but it’s hard to do," Sallie Krawcheck, former president of Bank of America’s Global Wealth and Investment Management division who is a board member for Motif, tells The Times.
"You might think about investing in the changes brought about by the health care law. Then you’re left trying to figure out how to do it. And you end up buying a large-cap mutual fund."
Investment themes can prove quite powerful for the entire stock market,
Eoin Treacy, a global strategist at Fullermoney.com, writes in his book "Crowd Money."
"Given the right circumstances an investment theme can go on to form a major bull market and might even end in a mania phase where prices accelerate higher," he says. "The most successful investment themes promise to change the world."
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