Swissquote has been operating the Themes Trading portal for eleven years. The service went online in September 2015, since when the direct broker has enabled its clients to capitalise on short, medium and long-term trends. “Every theme consists of a balanced portfolio that is selected by Swissquote’s team of analysts,” wrote the bank in a press released published for the launch. Initially the portal offered access to 30 such themes. Investors could, for example, put their money on Greece emerging successfully from the crisis, pick up on fitness trends or acquire a targeted allocation of wind energy stocks. The choice has roughly doubled since then, and Swissquote also no longer leaves the generation and implementation of ideas solely to its in-house experts.<\/p>\n
Last year the financial company organised the first ever “Swissquote Campus Challenge”. The competition gave students an opportunity to present their investment ideas and devise a particular investment strategy on a forward-looking theme. As well as cash prizes, they have the chance of seeing their idea come to life, because the winning theme can be issued as a tracker certificate and quoted on the SIX Swiss Exchange. Seventy projects from 37 universities were submitted for the second iteration of the Swissquote Campus Challenge. A panel of experts put each and every one of them through their paces and selected the five best ideas. This quintet met at Swissquote’s head office in Gland, with the five candidates presenting their ideas live in the event. After a final consultation, the jury announced the 2026 winners: Helio Chaplin of the University of Lausanne came out on top with his “Visionary Founders” strategy.<\/p>\n
The Master's student in finance and CFA Level III candidate designed an academically-based portfolio that is broadly diversified both regionally and across the sectors it covers. It arose from the recognition that companies led by their founders stand out from the crowd. Chaplin backs this up with a number of studies, one of them produced by Chris Zook, a partner at corporate consultants Bain & Company. In 2016 the Harvard graduate analysed founder-led companies over a period of 15 years (1990 to 2014). He discovered that they were able to generate a total return that was around four times higher than that of other firms. According to the student, there are several reasons for this above-average success. Alongside their personal financial commitment, he cites a long-term outlook, the moral authority and the fingertip feel of the founders and their deep knowledge of the business idea.<\/p>\n
Chaplin believes these strengths are not affected by market cycles. “They are enduring, structural and determined by human behaviour,” he explained in his presentation. The base population for his themed investments came from an ETF on the MSCI World. From this global pool he selected companies in which the founders or co-founders are actively involved as CEO or executive chairman. The initial screening yielded more than 100 such companies. The prizewinner then optimised this preliminary selection in a number of steps, ultimately arriving at a portfolio with 26 stocks from ten countries and eight sectors. The results of a backtest are impressive: over a period of ten years, the Visionary Founders theme has outperformed the MSCI World in terms of both performance and risk profile.\n
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| \n <\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n “Visionary Founders”<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/td>\n MSCI World ETF<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n Total return<\/p>\n<\/td>\n +338.8%<\/p>\n<\/td>\n +208.0%<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n Annualised return<\/p>\n<\/td>\n 15.3%<\/p>\n<\/td>\n 11.5%<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n Annualised volatility<\/p>\n<\/td>\n 11.8%<\/p>\n<\/td>\n 16.9%<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n Sharp ratio<\/p>\n<\/td>\n 01:29<\/p>\n<\/td>\n 0.68<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n Maximum drawdown<\/p>\n<\/td>\n -28.9%<\/p>\n<\/td>\n -34.0%<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n Years with outperformance<\/p>\n<\/td>\n 8/10<\/p>\n<\/td>\n <\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n 10-year bias-free walk-foward backtest; as at April 2026, source: Helio Chaplin<\/p>","adHoc":false,"headline":"Themed investments: expertise straight from the university","imageThumbnail":"/contentAsset/resize-image/57cd7f1be3bf6429c167d8fb533c088c/fileAsset/w/770"}
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