According to John Chatfeild-Roberts, CIO of Jupiter Asset Management, over the past decade, we have seen several longer term trends play out, from swift urbanisation in developing nations to technological advances everywhere. Changes in currency trends have also had an impact on economies and stock markets, in particular the directional changes in the world's reserve currency, the US dollar...

Unlike cap-weighted indexes, smart beta strategies are not buy-and-hold: they require trading and rebalancing to maintain their respective exposures. This can have a surprising impact on long-term performance, and may also provide a cause for concern in the shorter term...

Commodities exhibit unique characteristics including low correlations with bonds and equities and inflation-hedging abilities. These have made commodities an attractive addition to diversified portfolios and have generated growing interest in commodity indexing.

Risk factor investing is growing in popularity, but there's a risk of getting lost in the factor “zoo”. In this Expert Opinion Thierry Roncalli, Head of Quantitative Research at Lyxor Asset Management, explains the concept of risk factors and distinguishes between facts and commonly held fictions regarding factor investing.

Credit Suisse has generated a list of 9 investment ideas for 2015, packaged in 4 broad themes designed to help you generate more value for your money: "developed equities take center stage", "pathways to yield", "the winners from lower commodity prices" and "growing value capture in the IT sector".