Our investment approach leads us to two distinct major asset classes.

Traditional investments, generating a future return:

• Cash (Account interest payments)
• Stocks (Dividend payments)
• Fixed income securities (Coupon payments)
• Real estate (rents)

Speculative instruments, where the return depends only on the expected price differential

• Commodities
• Foreign exchange

Cash

This is the standby component in order to act on rising market opportunities without having to sell existing positions.

Stocks

Stocks are usually selected according to their capacity to generate profits over a relatively long period in various geographical regions and market sectors.

Fixed income securities

Generally, depending on a given security credit rating, this is the most stable and less risky financial instrument together with cash. Fixed income securities are the components of choice for a portfolio that should generate a stable return.

Funds

In order to give our clients access to all the various asset management styles and themes, our specialists thoroughly screen, analyse and recommend a variety of specific third party funds.

Alternative investments

Our own asset management in alternative products leads us to select the best hedge funds. It allows us to provide you with new and highly sophisticated investment approaches. These alternative investments often implicate complex strategies and exposure to various asset classes. As an example, structured products might offer attractive returns combined with a reduced volatility. However, these instruments may often bear little transparency and depend widely on the talent of a few individuals. A rigorous selection, diversification and constant monitoring therefore are of highly necessary.

Commodities

Commodities usually feature relative strong price volatility, and normally do not offer a calculable and firm future return. As such, we only occasionally resort to a limited percentage in conservative portfolios – except for precious metal positions which are traditionally added as a protection against inflationary tendencies.