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Thematic funds have been growing in popularity for several years, but they don't make great investments, according to Daniel Sotiroff, a manager research analyst for Morningstar.
They tend to be highlight concentrated — the top 10 holdings account for about half of the assets of the average fund; they're not cheap — 60 basis points for the typical fund; and most important, they tend to be launched late in bull markets when asset prices and investor speculation are often running high, leaving less room for price gains.
"Launching thematic funds in the final years of a bull market sets them up for poor performance," writes Sotiroff. Their "sky-high prices" can translate into "low expected returns."
The average thematic fund launched between January 1996 and July 2018 underperformed the MSCI ACWI Investable Market Index, a global index of large-, mid- and small-cap representation across 23 developed markets and 26 emerging markets, by 3.3 percentage points per year over the first two years of life.
In addition, many of the themes they focus on are trendy and lose their popularity over time, which can contribute to not only lower earnings over time but also the funds' demise.
"Themes come and go, along with the funds that attempt to profit from them," writes Sotiroff.
