What’s The Future Of Investing? 17 Experts Share Their Insights

Without the ability to invest, who knows how long it would take the average joe or jane to reach retirement? Despite the inevitable, at times crushing downturns in the global markets, there are few phenomenons more rewarding than your money working for you. But investing today isn’t the same as it was in the 1930s. For that matter, it’s not the same as it was in 2008.

These industry insiders have observed the trends taking hold in the investment world. They shared those insights with us, here’s what they said:

1. Bill Winterberg, Technology Consultant at FPPad

“The future of investing is in direct, customized indexing using a single, technology-focused brokerage firm. Soon, investors will be able to invest directly in a diversified allocation of assets, including company stocks, bonds, and even cryptocurrency holdings, customized to his or her own individual preferences, all for one flat monthly subscription fee. Investors will be able to bypass mutual fund and ETF managers (and their associated management fees) to invest directly in the opportunities that best align with their individual investment and environmental, social, and governance preferences.”

2. Cheryl Cheng, General Partner at BlueRun Ventures

“Fundamentally, the future of investing is the same as it has always been.  Firms seek alpha.  How they achieve alpha will be in a range of strategies.  Starting a company is getting easier and easier, from the technology stack that is available to developers to the distribution models to attract first users.  These lower barriers to entry, combined with a recent increase in venture dollars, creates signal to noise ratio problems.  Future investment models will incorporate faster, more data-driven ways to analyze companies, teams, sectors, and trends.  But, that is just the picking part of investing.

In venture capital, writing the check is just the beginning of a long relationship with the entrepreneur.  Putting in the time to build companies will continue to be an important part of generating outsized returns, especially for early-stage investors.  Finally, companies will continue to stay private longer and we will see more layers of private capital.  Funds will have larger reserve pools.  As an industry, we will need to solve for how to create liquidity for both founders/employees and early investors while companies stay private longer and perhaps indefinitely.”

3. Damien Cabadi, CFO at Spirit Asset Management

“In the investment area, we will probably observe an expansion of the market to the bottom of the customer pyramid. While private bankers are hesitating to serve customers with less $1 million, robo-advisors reduced their threshold to a few thousand dollars and money-saving applications went even lower. This is a trend allowed by the continuous decrease in IT costs, the high scalability of new technologies and the lower acquisition costs of digital channels. ”

4. Yaron Golgher, co-founder and CEO at I Know First Forecasting

“The future of investment is the synergy between expert portfolio managers and AI-based decision-making enhancement tools. As the amount of data we generate daily increases, it becomes difficult for humans to keep up with the trading and monitor thousands of new developments, big and small, that could all send the market to the skies or into a nosedive. The use of AI to process this data will allow the investors to have the best of both worlds, tapping into computers’ unrivalled ability to crunch the numbers as well as into the human insights and knowledge-based, rather than statistically-inferred, cognition.”

5. Adrian Enache, CEO at Angels Den Funding

“When it comes to equity investment, there are two aspects to be considered. On one hand, experienced investors encounter the challenge of identifying both promising early-stage companies and a blend of other alternative investment products. Allocating resources to various investment vehicles is an important component of reaching long-term financial goals. While drastically reducing the risks sounds far-fetched, technology will make this attainable. On the other hand, the future of investing will be more focused on the value that an investor brings to start-ups. As access to capital gets easier, intangible aspects such as mentoring, network and strategy will become essential.”

6. Patricia Russell, CFP, Investment Advisor and founder of FinanceMarvel

“There are some people that believe blockchain technology is the future of investing. Digital currencies will play a big role in tomorrow’s economy. More and more companies will become open to the idea of accepting tokens as a mode of payment.

Multi-asset class investing will also become popular as investors look for ways to minimize risk and maximize returns. Artificial intelligence is also being used to help people make investment decisions. This means that in the future, investment methods will become relatively simple for everyone.

There are others that believe the future of investing mimics the past.
Those that are smart with their money will gain the most while those that go with the trend and invest without thinking will lose a lot of money.”

7. Bryan Stolle, founding Partner at Wildcat Venture Partners

“Consumer companies, for all of their brand awareness, are fun and relatable. People know Lyft, Uber, and Tesla — even if they haven’t used a ride-sharing service or driven in an elite electronic car. They can touch and feel these brands. Still, over the past ten years, through a combination of digital transformation and stable, repeatable business models, B2B and B2B2C companies have emerged to be durable, extraordinarily valuable investments, generating outstanding returns that are generally under-recognized in the LP and investor community. We at Wildcat believe that we are just at the beginning of a shift where investor sentiment is growing stronger when it comes to B2B investment opportunities. The disappointment of recent unicorn listings is only going to reinforce what we have bet on for decades: simply that B2B and B2B2C technology companies are a safer play.”

Read the full article on Disruptor Daily.