By Chris Buck
If you’re like most investors, you’re longing for a return to the “good old days” of 2017. Although the market has yet to slide into dreaded bear territory, you’re not the only one who can’t sleep at night. Market momentum overall has slowed to a near halt, which can make any investor worry: what’s next?
One way to help protect your portfolio against the risk of a downturn (and to finally get that great night’s sleep you’ve been longing for!) is to add robotics, automation, and artificial intelligence to your portfolio.
While robotics, automation, and artificial intelligence—or RAAI—is fascinating in general (who doesn’t get excited when talking about real-life robots?!), what makes it so exciting from an investor’s perspective is that its applications are fundamental to the growth of nearly every industry. Logistics. Healthcare. Consumer goods. Retail. Technology. The list goes on. Every one of these industries is banking heavily on robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) to help drive competitive advantage. Even more, RAAI is a massive trend that is already in motion in every region around the globe.
Because that reach is so extensive, the potential for growth is tremendous. For investors, that makes investing in the ROBO Global Robotics and Automation Index an attractive strategy to both capitalize on the potential for growth and to manage risk. In fact, the index is designed specifically to deliver the long-term growth that is so important to any portfolio and to provide attractive risk-adjusted returns.
The structure of an index is always important when investing, but it’s particularly vital when investing in an industry with explosive growth. In an environment of massive expansion, there will always be extreme winners and extreme losers, and attempting to predict the winners from the losers is a risky proposition. We’ve all seen major players fall from the top of the heap to the bottom in what seems like an instant. Consider this list: Netflix vs. BlockBuster; Uber vs. taxis; Google vs. Yahoo; Amazon vs. just about any retailer you can think of! In each case, no one could have predicted the victor until the game was nearly over. Investors who placed their bets on the winners reaped fantastic rewards. And those who bet on the losers? It’s a story no investor wants to have to tell.