Long-Term View Tops Market Volatility
From announcements of hefty tariffs and trade agreements to geopolitical tensions and inflation debates, 2025 delivered plenty of market-moving headlines. Yet, thematic investors remain focused on structural trends rather than short-term shocks.
“What we’re really focused on is identifying forces that will create positive or disruptive surprises over the long term,” said Lisa Shalett, Chair of the Global Investment Committee and Chief Investment Officer of Morgan Stanley Wealth Management. “That’s where wealth is created.”
Thematic strategies often rely on custom baskets of securities that target the intersections of disruptive change across supply chains, labor markets, and society.
“In thematic investing, we’re not trying to make an outsized call on specific names. Instead, we try to find the catalyst and ultimately think about the internal correlation of those stocks,” said John Storey, U.S. Head of Thematic Investment Strategies at Morgan Stanley Institutional Equities. “You want to stay in these trades throughout economic cycles, so the ability to not have to try and time every trade is crucial.”
Looking Ahead to 2026
Katy Huberty, Morgan Stanley’s Global Director of Research, said that her team is already mapping the next wave of themes.
“We tell investors each January about the three, four or five themes that are going to generate the most alpha,” Huberty said at the conference. “It’s a commitment to our clients that we will dominate those themes.”
In addition to the 2025 themes, another frequent topic of discussion at the Thematics Conference was digital assets and the evolution of cryptocurrencies. The financial industry and investors are increasingly developing strategies to operate in that space, especially after the approval of the Genius Act, a set of regulations for the use of stablecoins, in the U.S.
“Participants cannot turn back the clock or resist tokenization of the global financial system,” Shalett said. “Tokenization is going to permit 24/7 trading of almost all assets with much more liquidity and transparency. It’s going to be profoundly transformative.”
For Stephen Byrd, Head of Thematic and Sustainability Research at Morgan Stanley, the evolution of AI and reshoring of supply chains should continue to be a focus in 2026.
