When looking ahead to next year it is easy to focus on the many uncertainties around the world, but we prefer to focus on what we consider a certainty: the continued, rapid digitalisation of the financial services industry. We have already seen huge disruption on this front in the last five to ten years and we expect this to continue creating new investment opportunities through the next decade and beyond.

The heads of Neuberger Berman's investment platforms identified the key themes they anticipate will guide investment decisions in 2020.

Should alternative portfolios favor smaller, medium, or larger hedge funds? The choice might not be as obvious as before and may be more dependent on the stage of the business cycle. For many years, small hedge funds have steadily outperformed their large peers, sometimes by double digits in the 2000's....

Despite the escalation of trade tensions during the third quarter, economic activity has remained quite resilient. Macro data releases even managed to beat expectations in the U.S. and in Japan, leading to a sudden rise in bond yields over the course of September.

Progress in trade talks between the U.S. and China and in Brexit negotiations knocked down safe assets last week. Bond yields rose in most developed countries and gold prices fell, as the stance on both thorny issues reversed and turned positive.