Some may dismiss this approach as a marketing gimmick. Because trends take time to play out, specific returns data on this type of strategy is, to date, scarce. Yet, proponents say the traditional strategy used by fund managers—seeking investment opportunities in specific sectors, countries or regions—is a mistake. "The central principal of our investment philosophy is the belief that no company, market or economy can be considered in isolation; each must be understood in a global context," says Ciaran Spillane, New York–based head of Newton Investment Management’s U.S. business, which constructs all of its funds on a global thematic basis.

Several large investment groups are finding value by taking a single-system investment approach to the following themes:

Food. At DWS Scudder, a U.S. division of Deutsche Asset Management in New York, an investment committee came up with a number of global themes that can be allocated to broader trends (see "Market Themes," page 59).

According to DWS Scudder portfolio manager Oliver Kratz, his firm’s latest theme is global agribusiness. By analyzing worldwide trends in populations, household income, food consumption and agricultural production, the committee noticed significant gains in household incomes in China and India. As these households become relatively wealthier, DWS Scudder expects them to spend more of their income on animal-based foods that they could not afford in the past. The firm is interested in a range of companies linked to the agribusiness theme, from biotech firms involved in the genetic modification of crops to improve quality and yield, to land and plantation businesses.

Debt. Spillane says the theme playing into his firm’s portfolios is the rapid increase in debt levels in some of the most advanced economies. "There has been a reversal in traditional debt and credit roles on a global basis. The former creditor countries like the U.S. have become debtor countries, and vice versa," he says. "Digging down deeper, we’ve seen a very low interest rate environment in the U.S., UK, the Eurozone and Australia. This has manifested itself in significant appreciation in residential real estate and an explosion in consumer credit in these markets the last five years, which has led to a front-loading of consumption." He believes that companies reliant on these consumers for earnings will be unlikely to significantly increase those earnings going forward. "The flipside of that is that there are other parts of the world that have very high savings rates, have underleveraged consumer populations and have residential real estate that hasn’t really gone anywhere. They are likely to be the consumer drivers of the next five to 10 years." He is therefore looking to take long positions in companies reliant on consumer spending in places like Hong Kong and Malaysia, rather than the U.S. or Europe.

Mass Affluence. Nick Rundle, a portfolio manager with boutique thematic investment house Taylor Young in London, sees opportunity in the increasing numbers of wealthy and mass-affluent people in the world, and how they spend their money. "Globally, we’ve been looking at buying interest in companies like Tiffany and Porsche—those related to high-end goods where the final demand is pretty insensitive to economic cycles," he says. "Given the increasing numbers of high-net-worth people in the world who aren’t particularly sensitive to mortgage rates and things like that, these kinds of companies will tend to do well in up cycles and down cycles."