Investing in megatrends

The minimum investment is the same as for the Global portfolio and the Sustainable portfolio.

The Megatrends portfolio asset management invests exclusively in ETFs.

Commodities generally depend on broad economic developments and are therefore unsuitable for thematic investments in megatrends. For investors, this ultimately also means that they must be prepared to bear the risks that come with investing in equities.

The Global portfolio and Sustainable portfolio strategies follow our scientifically grounded market approach, and your risk is deliberately spread very widely across regions, countries, sectors and companies.

The Megatrends portfolio strategy, by contrast, does not rely on a portfolio broadly diversified across regions, countries, sectors and companies, but instead invests specifically in only very particular themes. At present, there are hardly any thematic ETFs in other asset classes. In addition, the bond asset class, owing to its fixed interest, is unsuitable for demonstrating the performance potential pursued with thematic investments.

1. quirion first evaluates which themes can be invested in via ETFs, thus reviewing the theme universe available on the market.
2. In the next step, quirion identifies megatrends by gathering and consolidating the various assessments from future-studies and opinion-research institutes, auditing firms, and governmental and non-governmental institutions that are collected and brought together. Only the megatrends with the largest overlaps in the research pool are determined by quirion to be relevant megatrends.
3. In the next step, quirion assesses
   a. the influence of megatrends on the investable themes
   b. the influence of themes on one another

and thereby determines the relevance for each theme.

In a final step, the investment committee decides on the allocation of the strategy, that is, with how much weight the specific themes are represented in the model portfolio and which securities are purchased. In its orientation, the Megatrends portfolio differs markedly from the broad-market strategies Global portfolio and Sustainable portfolio.

Megatrends are long-term, overarching changes in the economy and society. According to the common definitions, megatrends have the following important characteristics:

• Duration – half-life of at least 50 years
• Ubiquity – affects all areas of life
• Globality – worldwide phenomena
• Complexity – multi-layered and multidimensional

According to our analysis, there is broad consensus on the following six megatrends among future-studies and opinion-research institutes, auditing firms, and governmental and non-governmental institutions:

• Urbanisation
• Sustainability
• Demographic change
• Individualisation
• Globalisation
• Connectivity

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The Megatrends portfolio is a new asset management strategy from quirion. It invests in themes that should benefit from identified megatrends in the medium to long term. The precise allocation of the individual themes is determined by the quirion investment committee.