Laurent Denize, Global Co-CIO and Matthieu Barrière, Co-head of asset allocation, ODDO BHF.

"In an increasingly complex world, global flexible asset allocation is a powerful way to navigate uncertainty. Leveraging ETFs as efficient and transparent building blocks enhances diversification, broadens the opportunity set, and helps keep costs under control. "

In today’s financial markets, investors face a paradox. On one hand, the investment universe has seldom been richer, with opportunities arising across various regions, sectors and asset classes, while access to numerous foreign markets keep getting easier. On the other hand, after more than a decade of lax financial, monetary and fiscal conditions, economic cycles have become increasingly asynchronous as previous global imbalances are being challenged by geopolitical shifts, fueling market volatility. Volatility, or more generally investors’ uncertainties, is also fundamentally supported by accelerating technological changes increasingly challenging long-established business models, and consequentially impacting valuations.

In such an environment, flexibility and global reach are no longer optional – they are essential, and affordable.

Why global and flexible?

Different economies and regions lead at different times in the market cycle. A purely domestic or static allocation risks missing out on areas of outperformance while being overexposed to local setbacks. By remaining global and flexible, investors can adjust allocation swiftly as conditions change – whether in response to shifting cycles, swings in risk sentiment, currency shocks, or sector rotations that quickly alter the landscape of relative performance.

Flexibility also allows portfolios to capture a diversified set of opportunities. These may include long-term growth themes such as artificial intelligence, digitalization, and demographic change, but also shorter-term dislocations, valuations gaps between regions, or cyclical recoveries in commodities and industrials. Rather than being confined to a single market, investors can focus on regions where valuation remain supportive, and where structural trends are shaping long-term opportunities.

Moreover, innovation and structural themes are rarely confined within national borders. A global perspective makes it possible to participate where these forces are most pronounced: in the United States through semiconductors, software and biotech; in China through electric vehicles and robotics; in Europe through advanced manufacturing and industrial automation. A flexible, borderless approach ensures that portfolios can both mitigate concentration risk and align with the sectors and regions that are shaping tomorrow’s growth.