Netflix wasn’t the first company to offer streaming services, and Tesla wasn’t the first company to offer electric vehicles. While predicting a company that will turn into a unicorn is challenging, to say the least, identifying themes that will grow over the next 20-30 years, like electric vehicles and internet traffic, is much more feasible.
On October 21, BTWM hosted a virtual lunch webinar to discuss thematic investing. We hosted guest speaker Sara Tunnell, Analyst and Product Manager for AllianceBernstein’s Sustainable Global Thematic Portfolio (ATEYX), to discuss thematic investing.
What is Thematic Investing?
Thematic investing looks at predicting long-term trends. “Equity markets behave based on what they expect to happen,” says Sara. “(For a) thematic investor; the media headlines become less important… we are looking for themes that will persist,” she continues.
Thematic investing involves selecting themes that have their own drivers of growth. After identifying themes, a thematic investor will carefully look at the companies within that theme, including “enablers,” which was a core topic during the webinar. Sara discussed electric vehicles, which is one of the 12 themes identified by AB. While the leading manufacturer in electric vehicles is Tesla, there are others that enable Tesla and fellow manufacturers to produce electric vehicles.